Category: Asteraceae

  • Purple-Stemmed Aster (Aster puniceus)

    Aster-puniceus-2009-10-22-Wexford-01

    UPDATED: An earler version of this post included a picture that was probably not Aster puniceus. Identifying asters is a fool’s game. Torrey & Gray’s Flora of North America lists 131 species of Aster, and the chances are good that the particular aster you’ve found by the roadside won’t exactly fit the description of any one of them. But this picture shows a plant that actually looks pretty much like what Aster puniceus is supposed to look like.

    Now Symphyotrichum puniceum, but the generic name Symphyotrichum is still so little known that most people looking for this plant will still know it as Aster. These common blue asters like slopes above streams and squishy wet ground. They are quite variable: Britton & Brown say that “races differ in pubescence, leaf-form, and leaf-serration,” meaning that anything you say about the shape of the leaves or how rough or hairy they are has to be followed by the words “or not.” The leaves of these plants were rough and sandpapery, and the stem quite hairy. These grew on the bank of a brook near Wexford.

    From Gray’s Manual of Botany: A puniceus, L.  Stem tall and stout 3-7° high, rough-hairy all over or in lines, usually purple below, panicled above; leaves oblong-lanceolate, not narrowed or but slightly so to the auricled base, rough above, nearly smooth beneath, pointed; heads 4-6″ high, subsessile; scales narrowly linear, acute, loose, equal, in about 2 rows; rays long and showy (lilac-blue, paler in shade). —Low thickets and swamps, very common.

  • Spanish Needles (Bidens bipinnata)

    Bidens-bipinnata-01-1024

    This is one of those flowers that reward a close look. The flowers are like tiny marigolds, and indeed they’re sometimes called bur-marigolds. The seeds, long and narrow like marigold seeds, have hooks that stick in animal fur or people’s clothes. These grew at the edge of a yard in Beechview.

    From Gray’s Manual of Botany: B. bipinnata L. (SPANISH NEEDLES.) Smooth annual, branched; leaves 1-3-pinnately parted, petioled; leaflets ovate-lanceolate, mostly wedge-shaped at the base; heads small, on slender peduncles; outer involucre of linear bracts equaling the short pale yellow rays; achenes 4-grooved, nearly smooth, 3-4-awned, very unequal. Damp soil, R. I., westw. and southw.; occasional on ballast northw.

  • Frostweed (Aster pilosus)

    Aster-pillosus-2009-09-29-01

    Now Symphyotrichum pilosum. Covered with white flowers, this aster looks as though it might have been touched with hoarfrost; it also blooms well past the first frost, giving us at least two possible derivations of its common name. Also called Heath Aster. It blooms everywhere in Pittsburgh; these were found by a fence in Beechview.

    Asters are hard even for botanists to sort out. Gray and Britton & Brown give this as Aster ericoides var. pilosus; Britton & Brown note that “This species apparently hybridizes with A. paniculatus Lam. where the two grow together.”

    Here is Gray’s complete listing for A. ericoides: A. ericoides L. Smooth, 3-9 dm. high; the simple branchlets or peduncles racemose along the upper side of the wand-like spreading branches; lowest leaves oblong-spatulate, sometimes toothed ; the others linear-lanceolate or linear-awl-shaped; heads 6 mm. high or less; involucre hemispheric or campanulate; bracts often nearly equal, with attentuate or awl-shaped green tips. Dry open places, N. E. to Ont. , Minn., and southw. Aug.-Oct.

    Var. villosus T. & G. Similar, but the stem and generally the narrow leaves villous-hirsute. (Var. pilosus Porter.) Same range.

    Var. pringlei Gray. A low slender northern form, with few erect branches and rather small scattered mostly solitary heads. (A. Pringlei Britton.) Me. to Ont., s. to Mass, and Wisc.

    Var. platyphyllus T. & G. Stout; stem and branches densely white-villous ; leaves lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, mostly pubescent ; heads as in the typical form, but larger. O. to Mich., Ill., and southw.

  • Rough-Leaved Sunflower (Helianthus strumosus)

    Helianthus-strumosus-2009-08-04-01

    These tall sunflowers like the edge of the woods, especially if there is water nearby; these grew on a hill overlooking a pond in a small park not far from Harmar. They were blooming in late August.

    From Gray’s Manual of Botany: H. strumosus L. Stein 1-2 in. high, very smooth below, often glaucous; leaves ovate-lanceolate, taperoing gradually to a point, or the lower ovate and acute, abruptly contracted into short margined petioles, rough above, whitish and naked or minutely downy underneath; bracts broadly lanceolate, with spreading tips, ciliate, equaling the disk; rays 9-15. River-banks and low copses, N. B. to Ont., Minn., and southw. Var. MOLLIS T. & G. Leaves downy underneath, often subcordate ; bracts looser and more attenuate. (Var. macrophyllus Britton.) N. B. and Pa. to Ont. and La.

  • Wreath Goldenrod (Solidago caesia)

    Solidago-caesia-2009-09-27-02

    A more contemplative sort of goldenrod. Its showier cousins brighten fields and meadows, but the Wreath or Blue-Stemmed Goldenrod is happiest in an open woodland, thriving in deeper shade than almost any other other fall flower. Its arched stems of golden flowers have a restrained elegance that seems appropriate to the dim religious light of the woods. This plant grew beside a forest path near West Newton.

    From Gray’s Manual of Botany: S. caesia L. Smooth; at length much branched and diffuse; leaves lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, serrate, pointed, sessile; heads in very short clusters, or somewhat racemose-panicled on the branches. Deciduous woods, s. Me. to Ont., Minn., and southw. Aug.-Oct.