Southern tall flat-topped or southern whitetop aster

Aster sericocarpoides (Small) K. Schumann; A. umbellatus Miller var. brevisquamus Fernald; A. umbellatus var. latifolius A. Gray; Doellingeria umbellata (Miller) Nees var. latifolia (A. Gray) House

Plants 50–150 cm (short- to long-rhizomatous). Stems usually 1, ascending to erect, striate, glab-rous proximal to heads. Cauline leaves: mid and distal crowded, blades lanceolate (proximal) to ovate (distal), 30–110 × 15–40 mm, reduced distally, stiff, bases cuneate, margins involute to weakly revolute, finely ciliate, apices acuminate, faces glabrous or sparsely hairy. Heads (8–) 30–130(–200). Peduncles 1–10 mm, sparsely to moderately canescent; bracts linear-lanceolate to broadly lanceolate. Involucres 3.2–6 mm. Phyllaries in 3–4 series, midveins often swollen, translucent apically, apices broadly rounded, glabrate. Rays 2–7; laminae (6–)8–12(–14.5) × 1–3 mm. Disc florets 4–13(–20); corollas 4–7 mm, lobes 2–4.2 mm, 60–75% of limbs. Cypselae 1.5–3.7 mm, 6–8-ribbed, sparsely strigose; pappi: outer 0.4–1.1 mm, inner 4–7 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering fall. Bogs, wet thickets and woods, coastal plain; 10–200 m; Ala., Del., Fla., Ga., Md., N.J., N.C., Okla., S.C., Tex., Va.

Doellingeria sericocarpoides is uncommon in eastern Texas and southeastern Oklahoma.