Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains
49. Asteraceae, the Aster Family
4. Boltonia L'Her -- Boltonia
1. Boltonia asteroides (L.) L'Her
Stout, erect, glabrous, shortlived perennial 3-11 dm tall, fibrous-rooted, sometimes
stoloniferous. Leaves simple, entire, linear to lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate,
5-18 cm long, 0.5-2(4) cm wide, much smaller in the inflorescence, acute, scabrous
on the margin, narrowed to a sessile or weakly clasping base. Heads several
to usually numerous in a corymbiform or paniculiform inflorescence, radiate,
1.5-2.5 cm across; ray florets many, pistillate, the ligules white, pink,
light blue or lavender, 5-15 mm long; involucres 2.5-5 mm high, the bracts
imbricate, scarious-margined with a green midvein, the bracts linear and acute
to spatulate and obtuse; receptacle hemispheric or conic, naked; disk
florets perfect, their corollas yellow, drying brownish; style branches
flattened, with short, lanceolate, hairy appendages. Achenes flattened,
obovate, wing-margined, 1.5-2 mm long; pappus of 2 awns and several shorter
bristles, reduced or absent in ray achenes. Jul--Aug. Wet meadows, marshes,
shores, low prairie and occasionally in wet woods; nw ND to e NE and with one
record from the Black Hills, most common in the n part; (NJ to s Man., s to
FL and TX; intro. in nw U.S.). B. latisquama A. Gray.
Two varieties occur in this region: var. recognita (Fern. & Griscom)
Cronq., with linear, acute-tipped involucral bracts, and var. latisquama
(A. Gray) Cronq., with at least the outer bracts spatulate and obtuse-tipped.
Many of our plants appear to be intermediate between these two varieties.
Previous Section -- Bidens vulgata Greene
Return to Family -- Asteraceae - The
Aster Family
Next Section -- Cirsium arvense (L.) Scop. --
Canada thistle
U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
