Gulf of St. Lawrence aster COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 5

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Species information

• Name and classification
• Description

Name and classification

Description

Halophyte, annual, glabrous throughout, fleshy; stem 0.1 to 4 dm high; subsimple or with axillary racemose one-headed branches or occasionally with elongate branches (Figure 1); leaves very soft and fleshy, quite smooth, sessile or subsessile, entire, eciliate, linear-lanceolate to spatulate, obtuse or acutish, often mucronate, 1.1 to 6.5(10) cm long, 2 to 9.8(15) mm wide, maximum width situated on average at 0.6 of length; heads 0.5 to 1.4(2) cm wide; involucre hemispherical-campanulate; phyllaries mostly foliaceous and fleshy, lanceolate, oblong or spatulate, mostly subequal, often slightly ciliate at base, 5 to 11(18) mm long, 1 to 2.5(4) mm wide; the outer corollas numerous, in many rows, fertile, filiform, 2 to 5 mm long, rayless or the ligule a mere rudiment and shorter than style, whitish to pinkish; central corollas few, fertile, filiform, 3 to 5.4 mm long, with 4-5 toothed campanulate limb, whitish to pinkish, about equalling the purplish stigmas; achenes pubescent; pappus abundant, equalling or overtopping the flowers; chromosome number: 2n = 14 (Houle and Brouillet, 1985); electrophoregrams for six enzymes (PHA, IS, SOD, PER, PGI and GOT) in Houle (1988a).

In the field, this species can be recognized by the following characteristics: annual, glabrous, halophytic plant with ligules very short and inconspicuous or wanting, in many rows. No other local species has these characteristics.

Figure 1. Illustration of Gulf of St. Lawrence Aster

By Réjean Roy.