Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Alpine Leafybract Aster
Symphyotrichum foliaceum
Aster family (Asteraceae)

Leafy Aster (Symphyotrichum foliaceum) grows from five to twenty-eight inches tall and is commonly found in small colonies that arise from spreading roots. are often withered at flowering time and stem leaves are broad, prominently veined, and reduced in size and number upwards. Hairs are often in one to few straight lines on the stem below the leaf base. This species is quite similar to Western Mountain Aster (Symphyotrichum spathulatum): If you compare their you will see that S. spathulatum are narrow, variable in length, and the tip is rather small and not sharply pointed; the of S. foliaceum are broad, relatively equal in length (outer are often even longer that inner ones), and much more gradually tapering, eventually to a finely drawn out tip.

Linnaeus named this "Aster" in 1753 and John Lindley named this species in 1836 from a specimen collected by Fischer in Unalaschka. In 1995 Guy Nesom proposed moving many members of the "Aster" to the "Symphyotrichum"; that name is now generally accepted. are hairs and "symphy" means "coming together." So "Symphyotrichum" refers to hairs growing together. "Foliaceum" means "leafy" and refers to a key distinguishing characteristic: the leaf-like . "Spathulatum" means "spoon-shaped."


©2012 Paul Slichter

Description

, uniformly soft-hairy below the heads and leaf bases. Stems 5-28" tall. Leaves , lower ones (leaves often withered at flowering time), becoming smaller and upwards. of 1-19 clustered large and showy flowerheads. 1/4 to 1/2" tall, with overlapping which are slender or quite foliaceous (leaf-like), green with pale white to yellow or brown bases. 15-50, pink, purpled, blue, violet. a hairy .

Field Marks

Short to tall, slightly hairy to , long or short-leaved highly variable sunflower with pink, blue, purple, violet showy flowers.

© Al Schneider

petiolate -- a leaf that has a stem. A sessile leaf has no stem.

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.

Bracts are modified leaves associated with a flower.

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem.

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

ciliate -- fringed with hairs

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

trichome -- A general term for plant hair.

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

basal leaves -- a leaf that grows lowest on the stem of a plant.

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

A clasping leaf suroundes part of all of the stem.

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