common panicled aster

not listed

NNR - Unranked

SNR - Unranked

not listed

FACW - Facultative wetland

FAC - Facultative

FACW - Facultative wetland

Common panicled aster (var.lanceolatum) is a 12″ to 60″ tall, erect, perennial forb that rises on a single stem from a long, slender, branched rhizome. It sometimes forms large, dense colonies.

The stem is erect, straight, stout to slender, and grooved. It is unbranched below the middle. It is green at first, eventually becoming brown and woody near the base. Above the middle it usually has many, sometimes just a few, spreading, ascending branches. It is usually hairless toward the bottom and may have sparsely to moderately dense, longitudinal lines of short, white, spreading or curled hairs toward the top.

Basal leaves are stalkless. The leaf blades are thin, inversely lance-shaped or inversely egg-shaped, up to 3⅛″ long, and up to ¾″ wide. They are tapered at the base, and rounded or angled at the tip. There is a short, sharp, abrupt point at the tip. The upper and lower surfaces are hairless. The margins are toothed with rounded, forward-pointing teeth, and have a fringe of hairs. Basal leaves are usually withered at flowering time.

Stem leaves are alternate. Lower stem leaves are stalkless or on short, winged, poorly differentiated leaf stalks (petioles). The petioles are winged and sheath the stem at the base. The leaf blades are linear to narrowly lance-shaped, 2″ to 6″ long, and ⅜″ to ¾″ wide. They are wedge-shaped or tapered and sometimes slightly expanded at the base, but they do not clasp the stem. They taper to a point at the tip. The upper and lower surfaces are hairless. The margins are untoothed. The leaves become progressively smaller, narrower, and shorter-stalked as they approach the middle of the stem. Upper stem leaves are stalkless, linear, and 1¼″ to 4″ long, not much smaller than the middle stem leaves. Lower stem and sometimes some of the larger middle stem leaves are withered by flowering time.

The inflorescence is a branched cluster (panicle) at the end of the stem. The branches of the panicle are relatively sparse, loosely ascending or spreading, and sometimes solitary or more often clustered near the end of the vegetative branch. The appearance is of a few long branches, with no or just a few lateral branches, and the flower heads rising from these long branches. There are 1 to 20 or more flower heads per branch. The heads are oriented in various directions. The flower heads are on 3 ⁄16″ to 2″ long flower stalks (peduncles). They are not subtended by leaf-like appendages (bracts). The inflorescence is more or less leafy but not densely leafy. The leaves are often longer than the peduncles, but are much smaller than the upper stem leaves.

The individual flower head is medium-sized, ¾″ to 1″ in diameter. The whorl of bracts (phyllaries) at the base of the flower head form a cup-shaped, ⅛″ to 3 ⁄16″ long cup (involucre). The phyllaries are arranged in 3 to 5 appressed to slightly spreading, overlapping series. They do not have a spine-like tip. Phyllaries in the outer series are ⅓ to ⅔ as long as those of the inner series. There are 17 to 47 ray florets and 16 to 38 disk florets. The ray florets are in 1 or 2 series. They are ¼″ to ½″ long and usually white, sometimes tinged with lavender or blue. The disk florets are yellow at first, eventually becoming purple. The flowers are not fragrant.

The fruit is a dry seed capsule (cypsela) with a tuft of bristles (pappus) attached to the end. The cypsela is egg-shaped, gray to tan, and 1 ⁄32″to 1 ⁄16″ long. It has 4 or 5 longitudinal ribs. The pappus is white to off-white.

12″ to 60″

White

Broad-leaved panicled aster (Symphyotrichum lanceolatum var. latifolium) middle and upper stem leaves are wider, broadly inversely lance-shaped. The leaf margins are noticeable toothed. The leaves in the inflorescence are about the same size as the upper stem leaves. The inflorescence appears densely leafy. The ray florets are always white.

Hairy-stemmed panicled aster (Symphyotrichum lanceolatum var. hirsuticaule) stem is moderately to densely covered with woolly hairs.

Inland panicled aster (Symphyotrichum lanceolatum var. interior) flower heads are smaller, no more than ⅝″ in diameter, and are closely spaced.

Siskiyou aster (Symphyotrichum lanceolatum ssp. hesperium) heads are usually subtended by large, leaf-like bracts. Phyllaries in the outer series are ⅔ or more as long as those of the inner series.

Moist. Bottomland forests; margins of streams, lakes and ponds; edges of thickets, meadows, and ditches. Full sun to partial shade.

July to October

Sources

3, 4, 7, 28, 29, 30.

Native

Common

Genus
This and other asters were formerly place in the genus Aster. That genus was problematic, in that it did not include just one common ancestor with all of its lineal descendants and no others – it was not monophyletic. In 1994, the genus Symphyotrichum was resurrected to include most North American asters formerly in the genus Aster.

Variety
This is a variety of a subspecies, and some sources list it as Symphyotrichum lanceolatum ssp. lanceolatum var. lanceolatum. The ICN (International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants), the rules governing the naming of plant species, makes it clear that this is not correct. Following ICN rules, a taxa “may also be referred to” with the inclusion of the intervening name (in this case, “ssp. lanceolatum”), but that does not constitute a formal name.