Common Name:
FLAT-TOPPED WHITE ASTER
Synonym:
Aster umbellatus
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Coefficient of Conservatism:
5
Coefficient of Wetness:
-3
Wetness Index:
FACW
Physiognomy:
Nt P-Forb
C. Peirce
Aster umbellatus of Michigan Flora.
This is one of our most distinctive asters and is common throughout the state, although in some areas such as the northernmost Lower Peninsula quite local. Borders and openings in moist forests, swamps (conifers, hardwoods), and thickets (willows, alders, etc.); oak-hickory, aspen-pine, and mixed forests; along streams and rivers, sedge meadows and fens, shores, ditches, marshy flats, swales; rock shores of Lake Superior.
Pubescence varies a great deal in this species. Plants with leaves glabrous beneath (except on the midrib) are var. umbellata and occur from the southern border of the state to Keweenaw Co., apparently absent only from the westernmost Upper Peninsula and Isle Royale. Plants with leaves pubescent across the lower surface are var. pubens (A. Gray) Britton and occur throughout the Upper Peninsula, with scattered occurrences as far south as the middle of the Lower Peninsula.