Texas aster

Aster texanus E. S. Burgess in J. K. Small, Fl. S.E. U.S., 1214, 1339. 1903; A. drummondii Lindley var. texanus (E. S. Burgess) A. G. Jones; A. texanus var. parviceps Shinners; Symphyotrichum drummondii (Lindley) G. L. Nesom var. parviceps (Shinners) G. L. Nesom; S. texanum (E. S. Burgess) Semple

Plants 30–80 cm. Stems ± densely hirsute, particularly distally. Leaves membranous, becoming thickish, brittle; basal and proximal winged-petiolate; proximal cauline blade bases cordate, becoming rounded-truncate distally. Heads in open, paniculiform arrays with very long, widely spreading branches. Peduncles 1–4 cm, densely, minutely bracteate. Involucres turbinate to hemispheric, 3.8–5.2 mm. Ray corollas bluish white. Cypselae strigillose. 2n = 32.

Flowering Sep–Nov (seldom spring). Loamy soils or well-drained clays, bottomlands, open deciduous woods, oak-juniper woodlands; 0–100+ m; Ark., Kans., La., Miss., Mo., Okla., Tex.; Mexico (Coahuila).

Variety texanum is known mainly from the Ozarks, east-central Texas, and the Edwards Plateau; it is disjunct to Coahuila (G. L. Nesom 1993g).