Dixie white-topped aster

Aster tortifolius Michaux, Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 109. 1803 ; A. bifoliatus (Walter) H. E. Ahles; Conyza bifoliatus Walter , not Linnaeus; Sericocarpus acutisquamus (Nash) Small; S. bifoliatus (Walter) Porter; S. collinsii Nuttall

Plants 33–117 cm. Stems erect, hairy. Leaves basal and proxi-malmost cauline withering by flowering; cauline sessile; blades obovate, 10–40 × 3–10 mm, margins entire, apices acuminate to slightly cuspidate, faces hairy, resinous. Heads 2–4 per branch, in corymbiform arrays. Peduncle bracts broadly lanceolate to narrowly ovate, hairy. Involucres 5–8 mm. Phyllaries in 4–5 series, outer 2–3 mm, first mid 3–4 mm, second mid 4–6 mm, puberulent. Ray florets 2–5; corolla tubes 3–4 mm, laminae 3–6 mm. Disc florets 6–11; corolla tubes 4–6 mm, lobes 1–2 mm. Ovaries fusiform-obconic, 1–3 mm, densely strigose; pappi: inner series 6–8 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering mid summer–early fall. Dry to moist clay, sandy and gravelly open soils in oak and pine barrens, oak scrub, pastures, roadsides, mostly coastal plain; 0–200 m; Ala., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.C., S.C.