Common Name:
LARGE-LEAVED ASTER, BIG-LEAVED ASTER
Synonym:
Aster macrophyllus
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Coefficient of Conservatism:
4
Coefficient of Wetness:
5
Wetness Index:
UPL
Physiognomy:
Nt P-Forb
A. A. Reznicek
Aster macrophyllus of Michigan Flora.
In forests of all kinds: beech-maple, hemlock-northern hardwoods, drier sites (with oak, hickory, aspen, jack pine, or mixed conifer-hardwoods), less often in swamps and river banks; common on forested dunes, also in northern rocky forests with spruce and fir. Often abundant after disturbance such as road construction, logging, or fire; spreading to roadsides, railroad embankments, pine plantations.
Very rarely a specimen is only sparsely glandular, but it can be distinguished from E. furcata by the strongly cordate bases of the lower (or even middle) leaf blades, although the middle and upper leaves tend to be much reduced in size. In E. furcata, the base is at most truncate and the leaves are well developed at the upper and middle nodes. The rays are sometimes white, but usually pink to blue. Vegetative shoots with large heart-shaped leaves are generally abundant in forests, and noticeable because of their large size; in comparison, flowering stems are rather sparse in most years, and favor borders, trails, and openings. The more eastern E. schreberi Nees and E. divaricata (L.) G. L. Nesom have both been reported from Michigan but thus far all specimens so named have been misidentified.