white doll’s daisy

(Boltonia asteroides var. recognita)

Conservation Status
white doll’s daisy (var. recognita)
 
  IUCN Red List

LC - Least Concern

     
  NatureServe

N5? - Secure

SNR - Unranked

     
  Minnesota

not listed

     
           
Wetland Indicator Status
     
  Great Plains

FACW - Facultative wetland

     
  Midwest

OBL - Obligate wetland

     
  Northcentral & Northeast

FACW - Facultative wetland

     
           
 
Description
 
 

White doll’s daisy (var. recognita) is a robust, 16 to 78 tall, erect, perennial forb that rises on one or a few aerial stems from a long, slender, underground stem (rhizome). It does not produce basal offshoots (stolons).

The stems are erect, hairless, and often somewhat woody at the base. They are round in cross section and have several prominent pale ridges. They are not winged. There are usually numerous branches that curve upward from the base (ascending) above the lower third of the stem.

Basal leaves are much longer than wide, thickest toward the tip, and gradually tapering toward the base (oblanceolate) to narrowly oval, thickest in the middle, and narrower at the two equal ends (elliptic). They are withered by flowering time. Stem leaves are alternate, ¾ to 6 long, and to 1 wide. They are attached at the base to the stem without a stalk. They become gradually smaller and narrower as they ascend the stem. Lower middle stem leaves are oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic. Upper stem leaves are narrowly oblanceolate to narrow and parallel-sided (linear). The uppermost leaves are linear. The leaf blades taper to a narrow or broad point at the tip and taper to a narrow base. They do not continue down the stalk below the attachment point (decurrent). The upper and lower surfaces are hairless. There is a single prominent, central vein. The margins are untoothed.

The inflorescence is a large, much branched cluster (panicle) of 15 to 60 or more flower heads at the ends of the upper branches. It is usually rounded, sometimes flat-topped, and appears leafy. The flower heads are solitary at the end of 3 16 to 8½ long flower stalks (peduncles). The peduncles have up to 15 leaf-like appendages (bracts). The bracts are green, linear-oblanceolate to narrowly oblanceolate or elliptic, ¾ to 4¾ long, and to 11 16 wide.

The individual flower head is medium-sized, ¾ to 1¼ in diameter. The whorl of bracts (phyllaries) at the base of the flower head form a hemispheric, to 3 16 long, to 9 16 in diameter cup (involucre). The involucre is not sticky or resinous. The phyllaries are oblanceolate to linear-oblanceolate and are narrowed or tapered to a sharp point and tipped with a short, sharp, abrupt point. They are arranged in usually 3, sometimes 4 or 5, overlapping series. The margins are membranous and narrow, 1 32 to 3 32 (1 to 2.5 mm) wide. Phyllaries in the outer series are 1 16 to (1.5 to 3 mm) long and 1 64 to 1 16 (0.4 to 1.5 mm) wide. Phyllaries in the inner series are 5 64 to 5 32 (2.1 to 4 mm) long and 1 64 to 1 16 (0.5 to 1.5 mm) wide. The thickened upper part of the stem (receptacle) is hemispherical.

The flower head has 20 to 60 ray florets and 65 to 170 disk florets. The ray florets are ¼ to long and usually white, sometimes lightly tinged with pink or purple. The disk florets are bright yellow, remaining bright yellow as the flower head ages and the ray florets drop off.

The fruit is a dry seed capsule (cypsela) with a tuft of bristles (pappus) attached to the end. The cypsela is egg-shaped, tan to grayish-brown, 1 32 to long, 1 32 to wide, and strongly flattened. It is not notched at the tip. It has 2 longitudinal ribs, 1 above and 2 below. The margins are winged. The pappus consists of 4 to 10 minute, 1 64 to 1 16 (0.6 to 1.4 mm) long awns, 2 or 3 long and stiff, the remaining much shorter. The long awns are about as long as the cypsela.

 
     
 

Height

 
 

16 to 78

 
     
 

Flower Color

 
 

White ray florets, yellow disk florets

 
     
 

Similar Species

 
 

White doll’s daisy (Boltonia asteroides var. latisquama) inflorescence has 30 to 50 or more flower heads. Inflorescence bracts are smaller, 1 to 2¾ long, and 1 16 to ¼ wide. The phyllaries are spatulate to egg-shaped spatulate. The membranous margins are broad, 3 32 to 15 64 (2.5 to 6 mm) wide. It is the western subspecies but its range overlaps in Minnesota.

 
     
 
Habitat
 
 

Wet to moist. Prairie swales, riverbanks, streambanks, sloughs, soggy thickets, roadside ditches.

 
     
 
Ecology
 
 

Flowering

 
 

August to October

 
     
 

Pests and Diseases

 
 

 

 
     
 
Use
 
 

 

 
     
 
Distribution
 
 

Distribution Map

 

Sources

2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 22, 24, 28, 29, 30.

 
  7/7/2023      
         
 

Nativity

 
 

Native. Also cultivated.

 
         
 

Occurrence

 
 

Scattered; not common

 
         
 
Taxonomy
 
  Kingdom Plantae (green algae and land plants)  
  Subkingdom Viridiplantae (green plants)  
  Infrakingdom Streptophyta (land plants and green algae)  
  Superdivision Embryophyta (land plants)  
  Division Tracheophyta (vascular plants)  
  Subdivision Spermatophytina (seed plants) / Angiospermae (flowering plants)  
  Class Magnoliopsida (flowering plants)  
  Superorder Asteranae  
 

Order

Asterales (sunflowers, bellflowers, fanflowers, and allies)  
 

Family

Asteraceae (sunflowers, daisies, asters, and allies)  
  Subfamily Asteroideae  
  Supertribe Asterodae  
  Tribe Astereae (asters and allies)  
  Subtribe Boltoniinae (doll’s daisies and spiny chloracanthas)  
  Genus Boltonia (doll’s daisies)  
  Species Boltonia asteroides (false aster)  
       
 

Synonyms

 
 

Boltonia latisquama var. microcephala

Boltonia latisquama var. occidentalis

Boltonia latisquama var. recognita

Boltonia recognita

 
       
 

Common Names

 
 

false aster

star boltonia

white doll’s daisy

white doll’s-daisy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glossary

Ascending

Growing upward at an angle or curving upward from the base.

 

Awn

A stiff, bristle-like appendage at the tip of the glume, lemma, or palea of grass florets.

 

Bract

Modified leaf at the base of a flower stalk, flower cluster, or inflorescence.

 

Cypsela

A dry, one-chambered, single-seeded seed capsule, formed from a single carpel, with the seed attached to the membranous outer layer (wall) only by the seed stalk; the wall, formed from the wall of the inferior ovary and also from other tissues derived from the receptacle or hypanthium, does not split open at maturity, but relies on decay or predation to release the contents.

 

Decurrent

Extending down the stem from the point of attachment, as with leaf blades and mushroom gills.

 

Elliptic

Narrowly oval, broadest at the middle, narrower at both ends, with the ends being equal.

 

Floret

An individual flower in a dense cluster of flowers; or a modified flower in the flower head in the Asteraceae family and some other families. In grasses, the modified flower in a spikelet of Poaceae and some Cyperaceae with its lemma and palea.

 

Involucre

A whorl of bracts beneath or surrounding a flower, flower head, or flower cluster.

 

Lanceolate

Lance-shaped; much longer than wide, thickest toward the base, and gradually tapering toward the tip.

 

Linear

Long, straight, and narrow, with more or less parallel sides, like a blade of grass.

 

Oblanceolate

Reverse lanceolate; much longer than wide, thickest toward the tip, and gradually tapering toward the base.

 

Panicle

A pyramidal inflorescence with a main stem and branches. Flowers on the lower, longer branches mature earlier than those on the shorter, upper ones.

 

Pappus

The modified calyx composed of awns, scales, bristles, or feather-like hairs in plants of the Asteraceae family.

 

Peduncle

In angiosperms, the stalk of a single flower or a flower cluster; in club mosses, the stalk of a strobilus or a group of strobili.

 

Phyllary

An individual bract within the involucre of a plant in the Asteraceae family.

 

Receptacle

The thickened, upper part of a flower stalk to which flowers or flower parts are attached. In composite flowers, the part on which the flowers are borne. In accessory fruits the receptacle gives rise to the edible part of the fruit.

 

Rhizome

A horizontal, usually underground stem. It serves as a reproductive structure, producing roots below and shoots above at the nodes.

 

Stolon

An above-ground, creeping stem that grows along the ground and produces roots and sometimes new plants at its nodes. A runner.

 

Wing

A thin, flat, membranous, usually transparent appendage on the margin of a structure.

 

Winged leaf stalk

A leaf stalk with a leaf-like or membrane-like extension along both sides.

 
 
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Kirk Nelson

 
 

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    white doll’s daisy (var. recognita)      
           
 

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    white doll’s daisy (var. recognita)   white doll’s daisy (var. recognita)  
           
 

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    white doll’s daisy (var. recognita)   white doll’s daisy (var. recognita)  
           
 

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    white doll’s daisy (var. recognita)   white doll’s daisy (var. recognita)  
           
    white doll’s daisy (var. recognita)      
           
 

Stem

 
    white doll’s daisy (var. recognita)      

 

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Other Videos
 
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About

Published on Jun 26, 2017

   
  Boltonia asteroides, Bee Flower, Fall 2009
Hank Chapot
 
   
 
About

Published on Nov 13, 2009

This Aster or whatever it is attracts a half dozen types of flying creatures, and it flowers in the Fall so it is the only thing flowering at this time. Know it's genus and species?

   

 

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  Kirk Neslon
9/30/2017

Location: Whitetail Woods Regional Park

I found these along the trail in the SE corner of Whitetail Woods Regional Park; it’s a low-lying area not far from a swampy area.

white doll’s daisy (var. recognita)  
           
 
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Created: 10/7/2017

Last Updated:

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