Doellingeria sericocarpoides

Southern Tall Flat-topped Aster, Southern Whitetop Aster

Doellingeria sericocarpoides (Small) K. Schumann is native to bogs, wet thickets and woods in scattered often disjunct populations on the coastal plain from New Jersey through the southeastern U.S. from central North Carolina dipping south to the Gulf coast states and west to Arkansas, east Texas and adjacent Oklahoma (Semple and Chmiewlewski 2006 FNA).  The species has lanceolate to ovate, stiff leaves, 2-7 rays, and glabrous or sparsely strigose cypselae.  In a multivariate study, Semple, Chmielewski and Leeder (1991) showed that the species was well defined and distinct from D. umbellata, into which it has sometimes been placed as a variety (Aster umbellatus Mill. var. brevisquamus Fern.; A. umbellatus var. latifolius A. Gray; Doellingeria umbellata (Mill) Nees var. latifolia (A. Gray) House).  The species is diploid 2n=18.