Spermatophytes (seed plants): Angiosperms (flowering plants): Eudicots: Core Eudicots: Asterids: Campanulids: Asterales
WEAKLEY'S FLORA (10/20/20):
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum
FAMILY
Asteraceae
Dig deeper at SERNEC, a consortium of southeastern herbaria.
Test-drive A Teaching Key to Asters.
Only a few of the "small white asters" that inhabit floodplains and bottomlands, and Calico Aster is one of them. Read more at Vascular Plants of North Carolina.
INCLUDING
PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum var. lateriflorum
FAMILY
Asteraceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH
Flora of North America
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum
INCLUDING
PLANTS National Database
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum var. horizontale
SYNONYMOUS WITH
VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 179-47-035:
Aster lateriflorus
FAMILY
Asteraceae
COMMON NAME:
Calico Aster, Starved Aster, Goblet Aster
To see larger pictures, click or hover over the thumbnails.
)
USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913 pnd_ashi4_001_lvd
)
USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913 pnd_asla6_001_lvd
)
JK Marlow jkm100730_206
July Jackson County NC
Balsam Mountain Preserve
)
JK Marlow jkm220722_9251
July Greenville County SC
Bald Rock Heritage Preserve
)
JK Marlow jkm120930_179
September Greenville County SC
)
JK Marlow jkm120930_179b
September Greenville County SC
Less than 15 white rays (occasionally w a lavender tinge). Disk purplish-red, per Wildflowers of the Southern Mountains.
)
JK Marlow jkm120930_184
September Greenville County SC
Involucres turbinate; bracts whitish with green midrib, per Vascular Flora of the Carolinas.
COMPARE
involucral bracts of North American asters
)
JK Marlow jkm140930_986
September Greenville County SC
Swamp Rabbit Trail
)
JK Marlow jkm141025_330
October Greenville County SC
Swamp Rabbit Trail
)
JK Marlow jkm141025_334
October Greenville County SC
Swamp Rabbit Trail
)
JK Marlow jkm141025_336
October Greenville County SC
Swamp Rabbit Trail
Leaves elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, flexible, serrate, per Vascular Flora of the Carolinas.
)
JK Marlow jkm141025_337
October Greenville County SC
Swamp Rabbit Trail
New vernal rosettes often developing at flowering, per Flora of North America.
)
JK Marlow jkm181028_5375
October McCormick County SC
Parks Mill
)
JK Marlow jkm201016_7780
October Greenville County SC
WEAKLEY'S FLORA (10/20/20):
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum
FAMILY
Asteraceae
INCLUDING
PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum var. lateriflorum
FAMILY
Asteraceae
SYNONYMOUS WITH
Flora of North America
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum
INCLUDING
PLANTS National Database
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum var. horizontale
SYNONYMOUS WITH
VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 179-47-035:
Aster lateriflorus
FAMILY
Asteraceae
157
Forb
Perennial
Native to the Carolinas & Georgia
Documented growing wild in GA NC SC
Common
Look for it in mesic to dry upland forests and woodlands, swamps, wet pine flatwoods, clearings, old fields, roadsides, other disturbed areas, per Weakley's Flora
Click here to see a more detailed map from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium,
or click here to see a map from SERNEC, a consortium of southeastern herbaria.
...Moist
...Dry
LEAVES:
Simple
Alternate (basal leaves usually absent or withered at flowering, but new rosettes often present)
FLOWER:
Summer/Fall
Rays: White
Disc: Whitish-yellow becoming reddish-purple
Disc flowers bisexual & fertile/ Ray flowers pistillate & fertile
Flower heads with less than 15 ray flowers
Inferior ovary
Flower heads in loose leafy panicles
FRUIT:
Summer/Fall
Brown
Achene
TO LEARN MORE about this plant, look it up in a good book!
- Gardening with the Native Plants of Tennessee p108
- Newcomb's Wildflower Guide p456
- Wildflowers of the Eastern United States p114
- Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley, and the Southern Appalachians p327
- Wildflowers of the Southern Mountains p213
- Wildflowers of the Sandhills Region p235