Aster infirmus Michx.

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Asteraceae

• Scientific Name

  Aster infirmus Michx.

• Description

  Species Description - Plants 4–11 dm; stems glabrous, mostly solitary from a short, fibrous-rooted crown; lvs chiefly or all cauline, entire, reticulate-veiny, glabrous or scabrous above, glabrous or more often short-hirsute along the midrib and main veins beneath, seldom sparsely short-hairy across the whole lower surface, mostly elliptic or elliptic-ovate, (3–)6–13 × 1.5–5 cm, 2–4(–5) times as long as wide, acute or acuminate, with shortly petiolar or subsessile base, the reduced lower ones obovate or broadly oblanceolate and rounded or obtuse; heads (2–)5–35(–75) in an open, sparsely or scarcely leafy, corymbiform infl; invol 4.5–7 mm, glabrous or puberulent, its bracts well imbricate, relatively firm and broad, the larger ones commonly 1 mm wide or a bit more, often longitudinally striate; heads 25–45-fld, the rays 5–9, white, 6–10 mm, broad and showy, the disk-fls ca 18–36, ochroleucous; achenes glabrous; pappus double, the inner of rather firm, sordid bristles, most of which are clavellate-thickened above, the outer less than 1 mm; 2n=18. Woods; Mass. to Va., W.Va., and Ky., s. to Tenn., Ga., and Ala. (Doellingeria i.)

• Common Names

  Appalachian flat-topped white aster