Doellingeria (Eucephalus) engelmannii

Engelmann's Aster

Doellingeria engelmannii (D. C. Eaton) Semple, Brouillet & G.A. Allen is native to open coniferous forests and montane and subalpine meadows from British Columbia and Alberta south to Nevada, Utah and Colorado (Allen 2006 FNA; G.A. Allen et al., Syst. Bot. 44: 940. 2019.).  The species is distinguished by its 50–150 cm tall stems, 5–10 cm, elliptic to lanceolate leaves, either glabrous and eglandular, or abaxially somewhat glandular and/or villous), and white to pink rays.  The species is diploid (2n=18).

The species was first described as thea variety Aster elegans (Nutt.) T. & G. var. engelmannii D.C. Eaton, then raised to species level Aster engelmannii (D.C. Eaton) A. Gray, then placed in the genus Eucephalus as Eucephalus engelmannii (D.C. Eaton) Greene, then transfered to Doellingeria based on DNA analysis.

Morphs of D. engelmannii from the Cascade Mountains with more densely pubescent leaves on the under faces may indicate intergradation with D. ledophyllus (Allen 2006 FNA).