General: Perennial herb from a fibrous-rooted, usually short rhizome or woody stem-base; stems erect, branched above, glabrous or nearly so, 0.4-1.2 m tall.
Leaves: Basal leaves stalked and soon deciduous; stem leaves lanceolate to broadly lanceolate or egg-shaped, unstalked and usually clasping, 8-18 cm long, 1-3.5 cm wide, entire or shallowly toothed, glabrous or nearly so and tending to be glaucous.
Flowers: Heads with ray and disk flowers, few to many in an open, round-topped inflorescence; involucres 5-7 mm tall; involucral bracts graduated, linear or often awl-shaped, sharply pointed with elongate green tips, margins fringed with small hairs; ray flowers 15-30, blue or purple, 6-10 mm long; disk flowers yellow.
Fruits: Achenes 4-5 nerved, glabrous; pappus usually reddish.
Mesic to dry meadows and forests in the lowland and montane zones; common in S BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains and S of 55degreeN, less frequent in NE BC and S Vancouver Island, lacking from NW BC; N to NT, E to ON and S to KS, MO, UT, NM and OR.
Ecological Framework for Symphyotrichum laeve var. geyeri
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
