General: Perennial herb from a slender, creeping rhizome; stems erect to ascending, glabrous, 10-30 cm tall.
Leaves: Basal leaves reduced and soon deciduous; stem leaves oblanceolate, tapering to an essentially unstalked base, somewhat 3-nerved, entire, often slightly stiff-hairy on the midrib below, 2.5-3.5 cm long, 5-9 mm wide, gradually reduced upwards.
Flowers: Heads with ray and disk flowers, several to many in a terminal cluster or rarely more branched; involucres 7-9 mm tall; involucral bracts graduated in several series, with a strong midrib or slight keel, oblong or the inner linear, obtuse to abruptly sharp-pointed, white and papery below, the light green tip often loose and spreading; ray flowers inconspicuous, 1-3 (typically 2), shorter than the pappus, white, 1-3 mm long; disk flowers few, 9-21, pale yellow with purple anthers, shorter than the pappus.
Dry meadows, woodlands and rocky slopes in the lowland zone; rare on S Vancouver Island, and adjacent Hornby Island and Trial Island; S to OR. This last part of the Aster key (often referred to as the A. occidentalis complex) contains some of the most variable and complex taxa in Asteraceae. The many intermediates between two or more species result in numerous plants which are difficult to place.
Aster curtus is easily distinguished from other asters in BC by its few (1-3), short (1-3 mm), white ray flowers that are obscured by the taller pappus. Aster engelmannii has white flowers but is a much taller plant (60-120 cm tall) with longer (15-25 mm) ray flowers. Aster paucicapitatus also has white flowers but there are more of them (8-21) and the rays are longer (10-15 mm). In addition, their habitat preferences and ranges are vastly different in BC. Aster curtus occurs in Garry oak woodlands in coastal BC and A. engelmannii occurs in and east of the Coast-Cascade Mts in meadows, avalanche tracks and open forests. Aster paucicapitatus occurs in coastal BC, but in meadows and outcrops in the mountains on Vancouver Island.
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)
