Symphyotrichum grandiflorum

Large-flowered Aster

Symphyotrichum grandiflorum (L.) G.L. Nesom is native to sandy soils, sand hills, roadsides, edges of deciduous woods and thickets of the outer Piedmont and coastal plain of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina (Brouillet et al. 2006 FNA).  The species is distinguished by its 50–100 cm tall, brittle, erect, brown, moderately hairy stems that are densely glandular near and in the inflorescence, clasping lower leaves becoming cuneate on the upper stem, and large showy heads with reddish purple rays and sparsely scabrous, densely stipitate-glandular phyllaries. The species is a duodecaploid with x=5 (2n=60); a single count for a hexaploid (2n=30) has also been made.