Aster gracilis Nutt.
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Authority
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
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Family
Asteraceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Plants with a thickened, hard, corm-like base, sometimes rhizomatous as well, the several puberulent or hirtellous or occasionally subglabrous stems 1.5–5 dm, lvs thick and firm, obscurely veined except for the evident midrib and sometimes a single pair of narrowly divergent laterals, entire or nearly so, not evidently sheathing below, the basal with elliptic blade 2–6 cm × 8–20 mm, shorter than the petiole, often deciduous, the cauline narrower and most of them sessile, 1.5–9 cm × 2.5–14 mm, 4–12(–15) times as long as wide; heads several or rather many in a short and broad, usually sparsely bracteate, corymbiform infl, narrow, the invol narrowly obconic or turbinate, 7–12 mm, its relatively broad, firm bracts glabrous or obscurely puberulent, imbricate, the outer shortly green-tipped, the inner scarcely so or merely purple margined, commonly some of or all them shortly squarrose; rays 8–14, blue-violet to rose-purple, often rather pale, 5–8 mm; achenes thinly strigillose or glabrate; 2n=18. Dry, sandy places, often among pines; coastal plain from N.J. to Ga.
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Common Names
slender aster