Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains
49. Asteraceae, the Aster Family
2. Aster L. -- Aster6. Aster pauciflorus Nutt. -- Few-flowered aster
Perennial 1.5-4 dm tall, from a slender rootstock; stems slender, single or clumped, erect to decumbent, glandular-pubescent above, especially in the inflorescence. Leaves much reduced upward, the basal leaves sometimes petiolate with a broadened blade, otherwise the leaves sessile, linear to linear-oblanceolate, the lower ones 4-15(20) cm long, 1-6 cm wide, smaller above, rather thick, acute, entire. Heads rather few, uncrowded, solitary at the ends of branches in a corymbiform arrangement, 1-1.5 cm across; involucre 3-8 mm high, the bracts linear-lanceolate, acute, loosely imbricate, glandular-puberulent; rays mostly 15-25, white to light blue or lavender, 4-8 mm long. Late Jul--Sep. Wet alkaline or saline ground of shores, marshes, stream banks and seepage areas; occasional in w ND, w SD, e WY and probably e MT; (Man. and Sask., s to NM, AZ and into Mex.)
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