Scaleleaf aster

Aster adnatus Nuttall, J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 7: 82. 1834; Lasallea adnata (Nuttall) Semple & Brouillet; Virgulus adnatus (Nuttall) Reveal & Keener

Perennials, 30–120 cm, cespitose; with herbaceous or thick, woody, sometimes cormoid caudices. Stems 5+, erect to scandent-sprawling (brown, branched from middle), moderately to densely finely hairy. Leaves (yellowish green) thick, firm, margins entire; basal early deciduous, sessile or subpetiolate, blades (3-nerved) oblanceolate to obovate, 10–43 × 7–15 mm, bases cuneate, margins scabrous, apices acute to obtuse , faces sparsely finely scabrous; proximal cauline sessile, blades narrowly obovate to oblanceolate, 20–35 × 5–13 mm, bases auriculate-clasping, margins finely scabrous, apices acute to obtuse, faces finely scabrous, shiny; distal sessile, blades lanceolate to linear, 3–10 × 1–4 mm, gradually reduced to bracts distally, bases subclasping and adnate to stem for ¹ /2 + length, apices narrowly acute, white-spinulose, faces finely scabrous, viscid, minutely stipitate-glandular. Heads in ± open, paniculiform arrays, branches initially patent then ascending or divaricate. Peduncles densely short-strigose, glandular, bracts linear, adnate, densely short-strigose. Involucres campanulate, 4–6.5 mm. Phyllaries in 4–5 series, oblong to oblanceolate, strongly unequal, bases (tan) ± indurate, margins hyaline, finely scabrous, green zones lenticular, in distal ¹ / 4 – ² / 5 , apices obtuse, mucronate to finely subspinulose, faces scabrellous-puberulent, stipitate-glandular. Ray florets 10–20; corollas light to dark lavender, laminae 5–8 × 0.5–1.5 mm. Disc florets 12–25; corollas yellow, 3.7–7 mm, throats narrowly funnelform, lobes triangular, 0.4–0.8 mm. Cypselae tan to brown, obovoid, not compressed, 2–2.5 mm, 6–10-nerved (faint), faces sparsely strigose; pappi tan, 3.75–8 mm. 2n = 20.

Flowering Oct–Dec. Sandy, clayey soils, sandhills, oak-pine scrub, open pine flatwoods, roadsides; 0–100+ m; Ala., Fla., Ga., La., Miss.