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?
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.
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.
