Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains
49. Asteraceae, the Aster Family
2. Aster L. -- Aster7. Aster praealtus Poir. -- Willowleaf aster
Quite similar to A. hesperius, differing mainly as follows: Stem usually rather uniformly pubescent, less often glabrate or with pubescence in lines decurrent from the leaf bases. Leaves thick-textured and firm, the veinlets on the lower surface dark and forming a conspicuous reticulum with nearly equal-sided areolae. Involucral bracts imbricate in several series, the outer much shorter than the inner, often reddish; rays blue, purple or sometimes whitish. Sep--Oct. Moist to wet meadows, floodplains, stream banks and thickets; occasional in c and e NE; (MA and MI to NE, s to GA, TX and into n Mex.).
In the northern Great Plains the prevalent form of A. praealtus is
var. nebraskensis (Britt.) Wieg., with the stems and undersides of
leaves rather uniformly pubescent with short, spreading hairs. Entering e
NE is var. praealtus with stems glabrate in the lower part to pubescent
above in lines decurrent from the leaf bases and with the leaves glabrate
to scantily scabrous-puberulent on the underside.
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