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Published In: Sertum Anglicum 27. 1788[1789]. (Sert. Angl.) Name publication detailView in BotanicusView in Biodiversity Heritage Library
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 7/9/2009)
Acceptance : Accepted
Project Data     (Last Modified On 7/9/2009)
Status: Native

 

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1. Boltonia asteroides (L.) L’Hér. (false aster, false starwort)

Pl. 231 f–i; Map 963

Plants producing basal offshoots and often also elongate rhizomes. Stems 40–150 cm long (taller in some cultivated forms). Leaf blades 2–15 cm long, 4–25 mm wide, those of the lower and median leaves oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic, those of the upper leaves narrowly oblanceolate to linear, the base not decurrent below the attachment point (the stems thus unwinged). Inflorescences appearing leafy, the bracts 1.5–5.0 cm long, 2–6 mm wide. Heads relatively large, the receptacle usually 6–14 mm in diameter at flowering. Involucre 3–5 mm long, the bracts in mostly 3 subequal series. Ray florets 25–60, the corolla 7–15 mm long. Disc florets 60–180. Pappus of disc florets a short, irregular crown of awns or narrow scales 0.1–0.4 mm long and 2(–4) awns 0.5–2.0 mm long, the longer awns mostly well developed in the disc florets, often absent in the ray florets. Fruits 1.5–3.0 mm long, the wings 0.1–0.5 mm wide. 2n=18, 36. July–October.

Scattered nearly throughout the state (eastern U.S. west to North Dakota and Texas; Canada; introduced in Idaho, Oregon). Banks of streams and rivers, margins of ponds and lakes, bottomland prairies, bottomland forests, sloughs, fens, and marshes, also margins of crop fields, fallow fields, levees, banks of ditches, railroads, roadsides, and moist, sandy, disturbed areas.

Boltonia asteroides is the most common species of Boltonia in the state. In recent years, it has become popular as an ornamental in native plant gardens throughout the eastern and central United States because of its tolerance to deer browsing and the beautiful white blooms it produces in the autumn. Fruits of this species are commonly eaten by waterfowl.

Currently there are three varieties of this species accepted by most authors, only two of which are found in Missouri. The var. asteroides differs in its subequal, relatively narrow involucral bracts and slightly shorter pappus awns. It occurs mainly along the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains.

 

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1 1. Involucral bracts awl-shaped to oblanceolate, the outer series 0.91.6 mm wide, the tips rounded or broadly and bluntly angled, sometimes with an abrupt, minute, sharp point ... 1A. VAR. LATISQUAMA

Boltonia asteroides var. latisquama
2 1. Involucral bracts oblong to lanceolate, the outer series 0.40.7 mm wide, the tips narrowed or tapered to a sharp point ... 1B. VAR. RECOGNITA Boltonia asteroides var. recognita
 
 


 

 
 
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