Eurybia spectabilis (Showy aster)

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Eurybia spectabilis (Aiton) G.L. Nesom

Showy aster, eastern showy aster

Showy aster is native to North America, but it is now threatened over much of its range.

Plants: Plants are 4–35″ (10–90 cm) tall, with stiff stems and sticky hairs, often branching toward the top.

Leaves: alternate, unlobed, mostly toothless, rough or hairless, and ⅜–6 ⨉ ⅛–1½″ (1–16 cm ⨉ 3–40 mm). In botany-speak, their shapes are lanceolate or elliptic to ovate- or obovate-elliptic or spatulate. This translates roughly to rounded or spoon-shaped. Leaves may be attached directly to the stem (sessile), or on short winged petioles.

Flowers: Flowerheads are a flat-topped corymb. Individual flowers are up to 2″ (5 cm) across, with 15-35 blue to purple rays and 25-55 tiny flowers in the central disc.

Fruits: Cypselae are brown, 1/16–⅛″ (3–4.2 mm), with 12–14 ribs. Pappi have reddish-tawnish bristles ⅛–¼″ (5.3–7.6 mm) long.

Habitats: Dry, sandy woods and clearings, especially in coastal pine barrens.

See our aster comparison table here.

Online References:

Go Botany

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Flora of North America

References:

Clemants, Steven; Gracie, Carol, Wildflowers in the Field and Forest, Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 18

Aster commixtus (Nees) Kuntze
Aster smallii Alexander
Aster spectabilis Aiton
Aster spectabilis Aiton var. cinerascens S.F. Blake
Aster spectabilis Aiton var. suffultus Fernald
Eurybia commixta Nees

9/14/2010 · Garden in the Woods, Framingham, Massachusetts · ≈ 6 × 6″ (16 × 14 cm)

9/14/2010 · Garden in the Woods, Framingham, Massachusetts · ≈ 12 × 8″ (31 × 20 cm)

9/25/2012 · Beaver Brook, Hollis, New Hampshire · ≈ 4 × 3½″ (10 × 9.2 cm) ID is uncertain

Kingdom	Plantae	Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae (from Stearn's Botanical Latin)
Subkingdom	Tracheobionta	Vascular plants—plants with a “circulatory system” for delivering water and nutrients
Division	Magnoliophyta	Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms
Class	Magnoliopsida	Dicotyledons—plants with two initial seed leaves
Subclass	Asteridae	A large class that encompasses asters
Order	Asterales	Flowering plants with a central disk flower and surrounding petals, like daisies
Family	Asteraceae	The aster family, which also includes daisies and sunflowers; from the Greek ἀστήρ, “star,” for the star-shaped flowers
Genus	Eurybia	From the Greek eurybies or eurybia, “far and wide, wide spreading”
Species	spectabilis	Spectacular

About plant names...

Range: Zones 4-8:

About this map...

Eurybia spectabilis description by Thomas H. Kent, not updated.