Symphyotrichum drummondii

Drummond’s Aster

Symphyotrichum drummondii (Lindley) Nesom is native to mostly shaded, loamy or rocky, mesic to dry soils, open deciduous woods, clearings, thickets, stream banks and edges of swamps, sometimes roadsides or ditches in the eastern US from Pennsylvania west to southern Minnesota and south to Georgia and Texas (Brouillet et al. 2006; FNA). Stem hairless to sparsely pilose, or hirsuto-pilose below becoming ± densely so in the upper stem; basal leaf bases shallowly cordate to rounded; stem leaves winged-petiolate, becoming broadly so or sessile distally; rays usually bright blue to purple or lavender, sometimes white.  The species includes diploids 2n=16 and tetraploids 2n=32.

Two varieties that grade together are recognized:

Plants 40–120 cm; stems proximally sparsely hirsute, distally densely so; leaves firm, basal and proximal long-petiolate, petioles ± winged, proximal bases ± cordate or truncate, sometimes obliquely; heads in ample, paniculiform arrays with divaricate or ascending, bracteate, often racemiform branches; peduncles ± secund, 0–4 cm, bracteate; involucres campanulate, (3.5–)4.5–7 mm; ray corollas usually bright blue, light purple, bluish violet, or lavender, sometimes white; cypselae glabrous ... Symphyotrichum drummondii var. drummondii

Plants 30–80 cm; stems ± densely hirsute, particularly distally; leaves membranous, becoming thickish, brittle, basal and proximal winged-petiolate, proximal bases cordate, becoming rounded-truncate distally; heads in open, paniculiform arrays with very long, widely spreading branches; peduncles 1–4 cm, densely, minutely bracteate; involucres turbinate to hemispheric, 3.8–5.2 mm; ray corollas bluish white; cypselae strigillose  ... Symphyotrichum drummondii var. texanum

Variety drummondii is often confused with Symphyotrichum urophyllum, a usually white-rayed species with erect array branches.