General: Perennial herb from a fibrous-rooted short rhizome or branched, woody stem-base; stems ascending, much branched and hairy above, 30-200 cm tall.
Leaves: Basal leaves soon deciduous; stem leaves numerous, linear, short-haired to glabrate, rough-margined, often spine-tipped, 2-7 cm long, 1-6 mm wide.
Flowers: Heads with ray and disk flowers, usually numerous in a branched open inflorescence, tending to become one-sided on the recurving branches; involucres 4-7 mm tall; involucral bracts graduated, outermost spreading and spoon-shaped, the others mostly linear, spine-tipped, with a whitish base and firm green tips, often hairy on the margins and back; ray flowers 12-30, white, 3-8 mm long; disk flowers yellow.
Fruits: Achenes appressed-hairy; pappus white to straw-colored.
Notes: Aster ericoides ssp. pansus is easily confused with A. falcatus which has a similar ecology and distribution. The former, however, has numerous flowers borne on the recurved-ascending branches while the latter has flowers usually borne singly on the ends of the branches.
Mesic to dry grasslands, shrublands, alkaline flats, rocky slopes, disturbed areas and open forests in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; common in SC and SE BC, less frequent in NE BC, rare on S Vancouver Island; N to YT and NT, E to MB and S to UT, AZ and OR.
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)
