Symphyotrichum oolentangiense (Sky-blue Aster)

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Detailed Information

Flower:

Flowers are ½ to ¾ inches across with 10 to 25 pale blue to violet petals (ray flowers) and a yellow center that turns reddish with age.

The bracts have diamond shaped tips and are pressed flat. One plant has from 20 to 100 flowers, sometimes more, that branch out in the upper part of the stem.

Leaves:

The leaves feel like fine sandpaper and are toothless or nearly so. Leaves near the base of the plant are shaped like long arrowheads, to 4 inches long and 1¾ inches wide that abruptly narrow at the base to become long “winged” leaf stems.

They quickly lose this shape as they ascend the stem and become much more narrow, and stemless.

Notes:

Identifying Asters can be really hard. The leaves and bracts are important in differentiating them. I first thought this plant was Arrow-leaved Aster, due to the shape of the lower leaves, but the leaves of that plant are decidedly toothed, whereas Sky-blue Aster is mostly toothless.

More photos

• full length of plant, about 3 feet tall
• more Sky-blue Aster flowers
• more Sky-blue Aster lower leaves

Photos taken at Long Lake Regional Park, New Brighton, MN September 2006 and August-September 2007

Comments

Have you seen this plant in Minnesota, or have any other comments about it?