Family: Asteraceae,
Aster or Composite
Genus: Aster
Description
General: 30-100 cm.
Growth habit:
Stout, unbranched perennial from strong,
creeping rhizomes.
Stems:
erect, single, strongly glandular above.
 Leaves: alternate, firm, sharply toothed, the lowermost
ones relatively small, tapering to the more or less stalked
base, mostly soon withering, the others ample, 6-15 cm
long and 2-6 cm wide, egg-shaped or elliptic, stalkless.
 Flowerheads: blue or violet with 12-35 rays 10-15 mm
long. Heads few-many in open, rounded to flat-topped
cluster. Involucre 9-12 mm high, densely glandular, its
bracts in 5 overlapping rows, with fairly broad paper-textured
bases tapering to the pointed, bent-outward green tips.
Flowering time: July-September.
 Fruits: hairless achenes, veined with pappus of long,
whitish, hair-like bristles.
Distribution
Common in open woods, from the foothills to moderate
elevations in the mountains in w., c. and s. parts of MT.
Also in n. WY, c. ID, n.e. OR, and n. to B.C. and Yukon. |
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