Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Smooth Blue Aster
Symphyotrichum laeve
Aster family (Asteraceae)

The Aster dozens of species until recent research showed that these plants really belonged in several other . The Aster in the United States now includes only two species, one very rare in a few Rocky Mountain locations and the other a non-native species of the East. Smooth Blue Aster (Symphyotrichum laeve ) is one of the more widely distributed Rocky Mountain species of this and is usually found in open areas of Aspen forests on dry to moist soil. This is typically a late summer and fall blooming plant. "Sym phyo trichum" is from the Greek for "with growing hairs" or "with hairs coming together" and must have been used in describing the first member of this .


©2005 Robert Sivinski

Description

Somewhat , spreading, to 40" tall with stout, erect, smooth stems. Leaves are up to 8" long, 1" wide, thick, smooth, or some , blue-green, and or broader at either end. Leaves near base of plant, often withered by flowering time, smaller and upward on plant. Flowerheads numerous , about 1" across, in clusters, with many blue to lavender to pink rays. are slender, green-tipped, in overlapping ranks. The hairs are often red. Rays 15-30, ~1/3" long. an , .

Field Marks

Tall, smooth, blue-green leaves, numerous showy lavender 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.

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

pappus -- Small scales, bristles or hairs at the top of the seed in Asteraceae. For example, dandelion parachutes. Plural: pappi.

Like the teeth on a saw, leaves and other surfaces can have toothed edges.

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

elliptic -- Oval, with no point or a very short point.

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.

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.