{"id":90836,"date":"2024-10-22T09:02:15","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T16:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=90836"},"modified":"2024-10-22T09:02:15","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T16:02:15","slug":"purple-asters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=90836","title":{"rendered":"Purple Asters…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Symphyotrichum laeve<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Much like August, September has been full of seed collecting. While we had a lovely diversity of species in August and into early September, collecting plants from different families and habitat type, mid to late September has been a different story with the species proving to be a little more difficult. Looking similarly and growing in the same habitats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The species we spent most of our time on in September were Symphyotrichum laeve<\/em> (smooth blue aster) Erigeron speciosus<\/em> (showy fleabane) and Eurybia conspicua<\/em> (showy aster). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Symphytrichum laeve<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Erigeron speciosus<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Eurybia conspicua<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
no caption needed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Luckily, with our training and experience in plant identification from earlier this summer, we have gotten pretty good at spotting the small differences between plants. E. speciosus <\/em>is a “fleabane” and not an “aster” because it as a different type of bract. S. laeve<\/em> and E. conspicua<\/em> have tall, tube like scaly bracts of multiple layers. While E. speciosus<\/em> has a flat bract with only one layer. E. speciosus<\/em> also had more ray flowers, meaning that it has a greater number of thinner purple petals and they look more crowded. Both features setting this species apart from the other two. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wider petals of Symphyotrichum laeve<\/em> (left) and the thinner more numerous petals of Erigeron speciosus<\/em> (right). Both providing pollen for native bumble bees \ud83d\ude42<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The flowers and bracts of S. laeve<\/em> and E. conspicua<\/em> are near identical. However, luckily they have one big difference. S. laeve<\/em> is known as smooth blue aster because it is the only purple aster with completely smooth, hairless leaves and stems. Where as E. conspicua<\/em> has larger rough sand paper-like hairy leaves and stem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The thin smooth leaves of Symphyotrichum laeve<\/em> (left) and the wider, rough leaves of Eurybia conspicua<\/em> (right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While initially observing purples asters in the field, we still had to stop and check the bracts under the flower heads and feel the leaf texture, but we have gotten quicker!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, IDing these species when they’ve gone to seed isn’t any easier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eurybia conspicua <\/em>with mature seed heads (left) and Symphytrichum laeve<\/em> with mature seed heads (right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Luckily with E. conspicua<\/em> the rough leaves are still present when the plant is at mature seed and it is identifiable that way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Symphytrichum laeve<\/em> and Erigeron speciosus<\/em> seed heads both at mature seed growing next to each other<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, the difference between S. laeve <\/em>and E. speciosus<\/em> becomes harder at mature seed because the bract is no longer present and the leaves are a similar size and shape. Something we were able to observe is that E. speciosus<\/em> has more a perfectly circular seed head and is often a lighter color (seen clearly in the left photo above). It makes sense that the seed head appears more compact and round because E. speciosus<\/em> has a higher number of flowers per flower head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A more concrete difference between the two when the bract isn’t present is that S. laeve <\/em>has leaves that clasp around the stem, while E. speciosus<\/em> also does not have a petiole, but the leaves do not wrap or clasp the stem at all. This was our sure fire way of telling them apart if there were no flower head presents, but usually, due to the variability in phenology, we could usually find some plants still flowering in the shade!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another obstacle we ran into with these purple asters is that Eurybia conspicua <\/em>does not like to flower. Like most aster E. conspicua<\/em> is perennial, but it was still fascinating to come across hundreds of the same plant in a population and not find a single flower. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Patch of Eurybia conspicua<\/em> not flowering (left) and Erigeron speciosus<\/em> flowering in a patch of non-flowering Eurybia conspicua<\/em> (right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When we did find patches that were flowering, less the a quarter of the population would be. Almost half of the populations we scouted this summer did not end up producing a single flower. Eurybia conspicua <\/em>reminds me of bear grass (Xerophyllum tenax<\/em>) in that way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

October 1st was our last day of seed collection and I have to say, it was bittersweet. I so enjoyed traveling all over Flathead National Forest and getting to stay in remote places like Spotted Bear Ranger Station. I am, however, excited to get into the data of everything we collected and to create herbarium specimens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s to the final month of the internship!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Erynn
Flathead National Forest<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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White variant of Symphytrichum laeve<\/em> seen in the Swan Valley!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Much like August, September has been full of seed collecting. While we had a lovely diversity of species in August and into early September, collecting plants from different families and habitat type, mid to late September has been a different … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7646,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90836"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7646"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=90836"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91125,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90836\/revisions\/91125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}