Wildflowers: Native Aster ID

Discussion in 'Plants: Identification' started by mcroteau1969, Aug 22, 2012.

  1. mcroteau1969

    mcroteau1969 Active Member 10 Years

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    Location:
    Victoria, BC
    I found a clump of asters growing along a fenceline and salvaged them before anyone hit 'em with a weedeater ... now I would like to ID them but am having trouble. Using the Plants of Coastal BC (Pojar/McKinnon) and eFloraBC I think I have ID'd the plant as possibly being:

    Eaton's Aster Symphyotrichum eatonii
    http://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/Atlas/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Symphyotrichum eatonii&redblue=Both&lifeform=7

    But, the eFlora's listed habitat/range does not suit where I found it - along a fenceline, growing in dry gravel and rock in full open sun. No water was present ... but there is a sports field nearby with some irrigation. The location (lat/lon) in Gretaer Victoria:

    48.366955, -123.310547

    The average height of the plants in the cluster was about 50cm and it's appearence can be seen in the attached photos which included a scale showing centimetres with millimetre lines between.

    Any other guesses?
     

    Attached Files:

  2. Daniel Mosquin

    Daniel Mosquin Paragon of Plants UBC Botanical Garden Forums Administrator Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    What do you think of Symphyotrichum chilense?

    I'm somewhat hinging that suggestion on couplet 19 in the key to Aster from the Illustrated Flora of BC (PDF), as I lean toward calling the involucres in your images as strongly graduated (after comparison to looking at images of species with the involucres not graduated - e.g., Aster laevis / Symphyotrichum laeve). Habitat seems a better match too.
     
  3. mcroteau1969

    mcroteau1969 Active Member 10 Years

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    Location:
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    Thank you Daniel for the link to the Key. I printed it out but sadly I procrastinated and yesterday I noticed the flowers are fading and the greenery is also waning. I have a sample and will attempt to key it out in the late spring.

    I totally forgot about that series of publications. They are invaluable and I am please to see they are available for downlaod as PDFs.

    Cheers,
    M.
     

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