Author
Chad Turner
Common Names
Elliott’s aster
Ecology
Salt and brackish marshes, and sand-mud flats, lime-rock-pinelands, marl prairies, mangrove flats. 0-50+ m.
Electronic links
Luc Brouillet, John C. Semple, Geraldine A. Allen, Kenton L. Chambers, Scott D. Sundberg†. 2006. Symphyotrichum Nees. In: Flora of North America North of
USDA, NRCS. 2007. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 4 December 2007). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA. species profile: http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=SYEL
Family
Asteraceae (Compositae); Aster family
Flowering period
August through October
Fruit
Achenes (Cypselae) tan to pale brown, oblanceoloid, compressed, 2–2.7 mm, 3–4-nerved, faces glabrous or sparsely hairy;
pappi sordid or whitish bristles, 5.5–5.8 mm.
Geographic distribution
Outer coastal plain, southeast Virginia to southeast Georgia , throughout peninsula of Florida , westward to Alabama and Louisiana ; reported in three Louisiana
Heads or Capitula
Involucres narrowly campanulate, ca. 8–11 mm.
Phyllaries in 5–6 series, linear-lanceolate or -oblanceolate to linear, slightly unequal, bases indurate in the lower one-third to one-half, margins narrowly scarious, hyaline, sparsely and remotely ciliolate, green zones lanceolate to linear, outer distally foliaceous, sometimes constricted in middle, apices spreading to squarrose, long-acuminate, apiculate, faces glabrous.
Ray florets (25–)30–46+; corollas pink or sometimes lavender, laminae 7–14 × 0.8–1.6 mm.
Di sc florets 25–35+; corollas pale yellow becoming pink and later reddish-brown, 6–6.2 mm, tubes slightly shorter than narrowly funnelform limbs, lobes narrowly triangular to lanceolate, 0.8–1 mm.
Inflorescences
Heads in paniculiform arrays, branches strongly ascending, leafy.
Leaves
Leaves firm, margins serrate to serrulate, scabridulous, apices acute to shortly acuminate, apiculate to mucronate, abaxial faces glabrous, adaxial scabridulous; base of petiole usually marked with reddish pigmented line;
basal leaves withering by flowering, long-petiolate (petioles narrowly winged, sheathing), basal blades elliptic, 50–250 × 10–50 mm, bases attenuate;
proximal cauline leaves withering by flowering, long-petiolate to subpetiolate (petioles winged, bases expanded, sheathing), proximal blades elliptic to lanceolate or oblanceolate, gradually reduced distally, 70–110 × 15–35 mm, bases attenuate;
distal leaves subpetiolate or sessile, (petioles broadly winged, bases sheathing to clasping), blades of distal leaves elliptic, 10–70 × 1–30 mm, progressively reduced distally, more strongly so on branches, bases attenuate to cuneate, clasping, margins serrulate or entire.
Place of Species Publication
Symphyotrichum elliottii (Torr. & A.Gray) G.L.Nesom, Phytologia 77(3): 280 (1994 publ. 1995) based on Aster elliottii Torr. & A.Gray. Fl. N. Amer. (Torr. & A. Gray) 2: 140. 1841.
Plant and Stem Features
Perennials, colonial; long-rhizomatous.
Stems 1, erect, (straight, stout, sometimes purplish pink), ca. 0.5-2 meters tall, , mostly glabrous, hirsutulous in arrays, mainly in lines.
References
Godfrey, Robert, and Jean Wooten. 1981. Aquatic and Wetland Plants of Southeastern United States , Dicotyledons. Athens : The University of Georgia Press
Luc Brouillet, John C. Semple, Geraldine A. Allen, Kenton L. Chambers, Scott D. Sundberg†. 2006. Symphyotrichum Nees. In: Flora of North America North ofMexico Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford
The International Plant Names Index (2004). Published on the Internet http://www.ipni.org Accessed 8 December 2007.
USDA, NRCS. 2006. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 8 December 2007).National Plant Data Center , Baton Rouge , LA 70874-4490 USA
Synonyms
Aster elliottii Torr. & A.Gray Fl. N. Amer. (Torr. & A. Gray) 2: 140. 1841 [May 1841]
Aster puniceus L. subsp. elliottii (Torr. & Gray) A.G.Jones Phytologia 55(6): 384 (1984)
Aster puniceus L. var. elliottii (Torrey & Gray) A.G.Jones Phytologia 63(2): 132 (1987)
Wetland Indicator Status
OBL