Author

Sarah Masters

Capitula/heads

Involucres cylindric to turbinate, 5–8 mm. Phyllaries in 3–5 series, broadly or narrowly lanceolate to subulate, unequal, entire, green area mostly lanceolate, apices acute, outer surface glabrous.

Common Name(s)

Annual saltmarsh or eastern annual saltmarsh aster

Disk Flowers

Disc florets 20-50; corollas yellow, 3.4–5.2 mm, throats narrowly funnelform, lobes spreading to erect, narrowly triangular, 0.3–0.7 mm, glabrous.

Ecology

Marshy and other wet habitats, often weedy, edges of woods, roadsides, lawns, waste places; 0–1500 m.

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Family

Asteraceae (Compositae); Aster family

Fruit

pappus bristles silvery, 3–4.6 mm.

Leaves

Basal and cauline; blades thin (green to dark green), margins often ciliolate, glabrous;

basal leaves  withering by flowering, long-petiolate (petiole bases sheathing), sparsely ciliate, blades ovate to oblanceolate, 10–90 × 6–14 mm, bases attenuate to cuneate, rounded, margins entire or serrulate or crenulate, apices rounded, obtuse, or acute;

proximal cauline withering by flowering, petiolate, subpetiolate, or sessile, blades narrowly lanceolate or subulate, 20–200 × 1.5–20 mm, bases attenuate, margins subentire, entire, or serrulate, apices acute to acuminate; distal sessile, blades narrowly lanceolate to subulate, 5–110 × 0.5–5.5 mm, apices acute.

Plant and Stem Features

Annuals, 30–150 cm; tap-rooted. Stems 1, erect, often with purple or purplish brown areas, glabrous or glabrate, sometimes strigillose in leaf axils.

Ray Flowers

Ray florets 16–30(–54) in 1–3 series; corollas white, pink, or lavender, laminae 1.3–7 × 0.2–1.3 mm.

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Synonyms

Aster subulatus Michaux var. ligulatus Shinners, Field & Lab. 21: 159. 1953

Symphyotrichum divaricatum (Nuttall) G. L. Nesom