Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Blueleaf Aster
Eurybia glauca
Aster family (Asteraceae)

The Aster dozens of species until recent research showed that these plants really belonged in several other . The Aster now includes only two species, one very rare in a few Rocky Mountain locations and the other a non-native species of the East. Eurybia glauca was first collected for science in 1834 near the "sources of the Platte in the Rocky Mts." by famed botanist, Thomas Nuttall, who named the plant Eucephalus glaucus. Torrey and Gray renamed it Aster glaucus in 1841; Sidney Blake named it Aster glaucodes in 1922; and Luc Brouillet named it Herrickia glaucus in 2004. It currently has the name Eurybia glauca which it was given by G.L.Nesom in 1995.


©2008 Ernie Marx

Description

, usually smooth (), with a waxy white bloom to it (). Stems to 40" tall. Leaves to 6" long, and 1" wide, , , and , with the lower leaves usually withered by the time of blooming (). Flowerheads few to numerous in clusters. commonly suffused with pink or purple, hairy and white on tips. are shingled and have a prominent mid-vein. 10-20, white or pink. an .

Field Marks

Tall, slender plant with waxy, blue-green leaves and pink flowers.

© Al Schneider

An entire leaf has smooth edges. Not toothed or lobed.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

phyllaries -- Leaflike bracts covering the flowers before opening and remaining under the flower after it opens. Also called "bracts". Only used with the sunflower family (Asteraceae).

achene -- a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. For example, a rose hip holds a few achenes.

A herb is a plant whose stems die back to the ground in the winter.

ray flowers -- The outer petals of a sunflower or daisy are ray flowers.

Involucre is the name given to the circle or spiral collection of bracts around a flower-cluster.

A clasping leaf suroundes part of all of the stem.

glaucous -- Pale gray or bluish-green. It can mean covered with a greyish, bluish or whitish coating.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

sessile -- attached without a stalk. For example, a leaf that clasps the stalk. A petiolate leaf has a stalk.

anthesis -- when a plant is flowering and is bearing pollen and/or is fertile.

included -- Enclosed and not protruding. For example, stamens within the corolla.

genus -- A subdivision of a botanical Family in which all members have a significant number of similar characteristics.

glabrous -- smooth, glossy, having no bristles or hair-like structures. Bald.

lanceolate -- Lance-shaped. Long, wider in the middle.

rhizome -- root-like stems that may either grow horizontally at the soil surface or in other orientations underground.