Symphyotrichum ericoides

• Family: Asteraceae
• Common Name: white heath aster
• Symbol: SYER
• Description: Perennials, 20-80(-100) cm, colonial or cespitose, eglandular; branched rhizomatous, or with cormoid, branched, woody caudices. Stems 1-3+, ascending to erect (grayish brown to brown), sparsely to densely hispido-strigose, sometimes glabrescent proximally. Leaves usually all except rameal withered by flowering, (light grayish green) firm apices white-spine-tipped (often with clusters of smaller leaves in axils); basal sessile, blades (3-nerved) oblanceolate to oblong or spatulate, 10-50 10-25 mm, bases attenuate, margins usually entire, rarely remotely serrate, scabrous, apices rounded to obtuse, faces usually sparsely hairy, often glabrous; proximal cauline sessile, blades (1- or 3-nerved) linear to lanceolate or oblong, 10-40(-60) 1.5-4(-7) mm, reduced distally, bases cuneate, coarsely ciliate, margins entire, coarsely ciliate, apices acute or obtuse, faces moderately to densely strigose or hirsute; distal sessile, blades oblong-ovate, 10-40 1.5-3.5 mm, abruptly reduced distally, bases cuneate, margins entire, apices acute, faces moderately to densely strigose. Heads (1-200+) in paniculiform arrays, branches fastigiate or arrays often pyramidal, racemiform, secund, crowded. Peduncles 0.5-1(-2) cm or subsessile, densely hairy, bracts dense, linear to narrowly lanceolate, usually reflexed, sometime appressed to ascending, 1.5-5(-6) mm, densely hairy, grading into phyllaries. Involucres cylindric to campanulate, 2.5-4.5(-5) mm. Phyllaries in 3-4 series, oblanceolate to spatulate, unequal, firm, bases (whitish to tan) indurate in proximal 1 / 2 - 2 / 3 , margins hyaline, scabrous proximally, green zones diamond-shaped, in distal 1 / 2 , apices spine-tipped, (outer) spreading to reflexed or squarrose, faces (outer) sparsely to densely hispid, scabroso-hirsute adaxially, (inner) glabrous. Ray florets (8-)10-18(-20); corollas usually white, rarely pink or bluish, laminae 6-12(-20) 0.7-1.2 mm. Disc florets 6-12(-20); corollas yellow becoming brown, 2.5-4 mm, throats narrowly funnelform, lobes triangular, 0.5-0.6 mm, glabrous. Cypselae deep purple turning brown, obovoid to oblong-obovoid, falcate, not compressed, 1.2-2 0.4-0.6 mm, 7-9-nerved (faint), faces sericeous or densely strigillose; pappi whitish, 3-4 mm. Symphyotrichum ericoides resembles S. pilosum var. pilosum, which has larger heads, longer rays, and phyllaries that are not spine-tipped, though the revolute margins can make them appear so.

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