Late purple or spreading aster

Aster patens Aiton, Hort. Kew. 3: 201. 1789; Virgulus patens (Aiton) Reveal & Keener

Perennials, 10–100(–120) cm, cespitose; with short, thick, woody caudices, tangled or sometimes cormoid, and long rhizomes. Stems 1–5+, ascending to erect (often stout, light to dark brown), sparsely to densely scabroso-hirsute to cinereo-puberulent, or villous distally. Leaves (light to dark green) thick and often stiff (margins flat, sometimes undulate), scabrous; basal early deciduous, subpetiolate (petioles winged, sheathing), blades spatulate to obovate, 30–70 × 10–30 mm, bases cuneate, margins entire to ± serrulate, scabrous, apices acute to rounded, faces scabroso-hirsute; proximal cauline sessile, blades usually ovate to lanceolate, rarely spatulate, (20–)30–70(–100) × 10–30(–40) mm, reduced distally, bases strongly cordate-clasping to auriculate-amplexicaul (broadened below constriction), apices acute, faces (grayish green) rugulose, hairy (abaxial inconspicuously veined, adaxial reticulately veined, hairier along veins); distal sessile, blades narrowly to broadly ovate, 15–35 × 4–13 mm, much reduced on branches, bases strongly cordate-clasping to auriculate-amplexicaul, apices usually acute, sometimes obtuse, mucronate to white-spinulose, faces scabrous, sometimes sparsely to moderately stipitate-glandular. Heads in paniculiform arrays, branches divaricate (heads 1–5+ per branch), terminal shoot often not flowering. Peduncles stiffly ascending, slender, 2–10(–15) cm, scabroso-hirsute to cinereo-puberulent, bracts appressed to spreading, linear, 1–5 mm, grading into phyllaries. Involucres campanulate, 5.5–12 mm. Phyllaries in 4–7(–8) series, appressed or often slightly recurved-spreading or squarrose, ovate-lanceolate to linear, strongly unequal, bases (tan) ± indurate in proximal ¹ / 3 – ¹ / 2 , margins hyaline, erose, distally scabroso-ciliolate to ciliolate, green zones diamond-shaped, in distal ¹ / 5 – ¹ / 3 , apices (outer) obtuse to acute, appressed to squarrose, (inner) acuminate, often purplish red, faces strigillose or cinereo-puberulent abaxially and near tip adaxially, sometimes moderately stipitate-glandular distally. Ray florets 12–24+; corollas light lavender-violet to mauve, rarely white to pinkish, laminae 10–18(–20) × 1–3 mm. Disc florets 20–50; corollas yellow, cream, or white turning purple, (4.5–)5.5–7.5 mm, tubes shorter than narrowly funnelform throats, lobes triangular, 0.5–1 mm (glabrous or lobes thinly puberulent). Cypselae dull purple or brown, obovoid to oblong-obovoid, not compressed, 2–3.5 mm, 7–10-nerved (faint), faces sericeous or strigillose; pappi tawny, sometimes rose-tinged, 4.5–6.5 mm.

Varieties 3 (3 in the flora): e North America.