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Aster
Family: Asteraceae
Aster image
Eriksson, Torsten
  • FNA
  • Gleason & Cronquist
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Luc Brouillet in Flora of North America (vol. 20)
Perennials [subshrubs, shrubs], 3-300 cm (rhizomatous, rhizomes long or short, plants sometimes with branched caudices). Stems ascending to erect, simple, ± densely hairy [glabrous], sometimes stipitate-glandular. Leaves basal and/or cauline; sessile or petiolate; blades 1-nerved, spatulate, obovate (mainly basal), oblanceolate, lance-oblong, lanceolate, or linear, distal often reduced, margins entire or serrate [lobed], faces hairy. Heads radiate, borne singly or in corymbiform [paniculiform] arrays. Involucres broadly campanulate or hemispheric [cylindro-campanulate], 15-25 mm diam. Phyllaries persistent, 25-50 in 2-4 series, 1-nerved (flat), ovate to lanceolate, unequal to subequal, bases ± scarious, herbaceous distally or not, green zones along midnerves, margins scarious to hyaline, densely villous, strigillose, or glabrous, sometimes ± short-stipitate-glandular. Receptacles flat or convex, pitted, epaleate. Ray florets 14-55(-100)[-150] in 1 series, pistillate, fertile; corollas white, pink, purple, blue, or violet. Disc florets 20-100+, bisexual, fertile; corollas usually yellow (sometimes reddening), slightly ampliate [tubular], tubes shorter than to equaling funnelform or campanulate throats, lobes 5, usually erect to spreading, rarely reflexed, lanceolate; style-branch appendages lanceolate. Cypselae obconic, compressed, 2 marginal ribs, faces ± densely strigillose [glabrous], sometimes short-stipitate-glandular; pappi persistent, of 20-30 white to tawny, ± equal, barbellate, apically usually attenuate, sometimes ± clavate bristles in 1-2 series. x = 9. Some species of Aster are cultivated and sold in the horticultural trade (J. C. Semple et al. 2002). Some species, notably the type of the genus, Aster amellus Linnaeus, have a large number of cultivars. The genus name is the type of the family name Asteraceae. As circumscribed here, Aster excludes members of the Crinitaria-Galatella-Tripolium complex, which are closer to the Bellidinae ( Bellis, Bellium, Bellidiastrum; O. Fiz et al. 2002). Analysis of molecular data shows that Aster in the strict sense includes Diplactis, Kalimeris, Heteropappus, and a few other eastern Asiatic segregates. The relationship of Aster in the strict sense to other Astereae genera is unclear, and the delimitation of subtribe Asterinae in the sense of G. L. Nesom (1994b) is still uncertain.

Vascular plants of NE US and adjacent Canada
Heads generally radiate, the rays pistillate and fertile, anthocyanic or white, in a few spp. reduced and inconspicuous or even wanting, the cor of the pistillate fls then a mere slender tube; invol bracts in 2 or more series, equal or more often imbricate, usually ±herbaceous at the tip and chartaceous below, sometimes herbaceous or chartaceous throughout; receptacle naked, flat or a little convex; disk-fls perfect and fertile, red or purple to yellow; style-branches flattened, with mostly narrow and acute or acuminate, externally short-hairy appendage; achenes several-nerved; pappus of numerous capillary bristles, sometimes with an additional short outer series; perennial (seldom annual) herbs, most spp. fibrous-rooted, with simple, alternate, entire or variously toothed lvs and solitary to more often several or numerous, hemispheric to subcylindric heads. (Brachyactis, Doellingeria, Ionactis, Sericocarpus) 175+, mainly N. Amer. Our spp. bloom in mid- or late summer and fall. Hybrids abound; some of the more notable ones are here formally treated. Some of the species with chromosome numbers based on x=8 (especially in the Heterophylli) tend to have additional B-chromosomes, and have often been reported to have numbers based on 9. The disk-cors characteristically consist of a slender (often short) basal tube and a more swollen limb; the lobes are part of the limb. The terms lvs basally disposed and lvs chiefly cauline are here used as explained under Solidago. The plant traditionally called Aster (or Unamia) ptarmicoides is here referred to Solidago, in spite of its white rays. It hybridizes with several spp. of Solidago (especially of the sect. Oligoneuron), but not with Aster. It is marked by its 10-25 white rays, white disk-cors and copious (but not double) pappus with many of the bristles clavellate- thickened toward the tip.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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Aster acadiensis
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Aster acris
Image of Aster acris
Aster acuminatus
Image of Aster acuminatus
Aster adnatus
Image of Aster adnatus
Aster ageratoides
Image of Aster ageratoides
Aster agrostifolius
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Aster albescens
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Aster alpinus
Image of Aster alpinus
Aster altaicus
Image of Aster altaicus
Aster amelloides
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Aster amellus
Image of Aster amellus
Aster amygdalinus
Image of Aster amygdalinus
Aster andersonii
Image of Aster andersonii
Aster anticostensis
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Aster apricus
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Aster arcticus
Image of Aster arcticus
Aster asperifolius
Image of Aster asperifolius
Aster asperrimus
Image of Aster asperrimus
Aster asperugineus
Image of Aster asperugineus
Aster asperulus
Image of Aster asperulus
Aster avitus
Image of Aster avitus
Aster bakerianus
Image of Aster bakerianus
Aster batesii
Image of Aster batesii
Aster behringensis
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Aster bernardinus
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Aster biennis
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Aster bietii
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Aster blakei
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Aster bloomeri
Image of Aster bloomeri
Aster bracei
Image of Aster bracei
Aster brachypholis
Image of Aster brachypholis
Aster brachyphyllus
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Aster brachytrichus
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Aster brevilingulatus
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Aster breweri
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Aster brickellioides
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Aster bullatus
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Aster campestris
Image of Aster campestris
Aster camptosorus
Image of Aster camptosorus
Aster carnerosanus
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Aster carnosus
Image of Aster carnosus
Aster carolinianus
Image of Aster carolinianus
Aster caucasicus
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Aster chapmanii
Image of Aster chapmanii
Aster chasei
Image of Aster chasei
Aster chinensis
Image of Aster chinensis
Aster chlorolepis
Image of Aster chlorolepis
Aster cichoriacea
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Aster ciliolatus
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Aster claviger
Image of Aster claviger
The National Science Foundation
Development supported by National Science Foundation Grants (DBI 9983132, BRC 0237418, DBI 0743827, DBI 0847966)
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