Brewer's Aster
Doellingeria breweri (A. Gray) Semple, Brouillet & G.A. Allen is native to open coniferous forests and subalpine meadows in the Sierra Nevada in California and adjacent Nevada (Allen 2006 FNA; Allen et al., Syst. Bot. 939. 2019). The species is rayless and has subsequal phyllaries. The species is diploid (2n=18).
The species was first described as a goldenaster (Chrysopsis breweriA. Gray, Heterotheca breweri (A. Gray) Shinners). Semple (1988) was the first to recognize that it was a rayless aster, not a rayless goldenaster (Aster breweri (A. Gray) Semple)and Nesom proposed the name Eucephalus breweri (A. Gray) G.L. Nesom.
Specimens at the northern edge of the range may intergrade with D. glabratus and D. tomentellus (Allen 2006 FNA).
Semple, J.C. 1988. Aster breweri, a new combination for a rayless aster based on Chrysopsis breweri (Compositae: Astereae). Syst. Bot. 13: 538-546.
Allen, G.A., L. Brouillet, J.C. Semple, H.J. Guest, and R. Underhill. 2019. Diversification of the North American Doellingeria-Eucephalus Clade (Astereae: Asteraceae) as inferred from molecular and morphological evidence. Syst. Bot. 44(4): 930-942.
Last updated 28 April 2021 by J.C. Semple
© 2021 J.C. Semple, including all photographs unless otherwise indicated