Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

[As these two plants are now considered the same species, we will refer on this worksheet to both Red-stemmed and Purplestem Aster as Purplestem Aster] It is a tall erect, native, perennial with stems that are stout, to six feet high, hairy and reddish-purple, and branched to create the floral array of several to many loose open clusters. Stems are usually densely hairy, except sometimes smooth near the base. The upper part of the stems tend to be weaker and flexible.

The larger leaves have a few very shallow teeth and taper to a base that partially clasps the stem. Upper leaves will be smaller and without teeth. The upper surface is dark green when young, the underside is usually paler in color due dense hair on the veins. Leaf blades are longer than wide, lanceolate in shape (broadest in the lower half) some larger leaves may be more oblong-elliptic. Leaves are not dense on the stem and the lower leaves which are largest, fall away by flowering time.

The floral array is an open panicle form with panicle branches widely spreading to ascending. Leaves in the panicle are moderate to sparse.

Flowers: The open flowers are 1 to 1 1/2 inches wide and composed of two flower types - an outer group of 20 to 50+ ray florets with blue-violet to purple rays (seldom pink, sometimes white). These are pistillate and fertile. These surround a center of 30 to 50+ disc florets which have pale yellow tubular corolla tubes with 5 pointed lobes. These are bisexual, fertile, opening from the edge to the center and the corolla takes on a reddish tinge in mature flowers but not in newly opened ones. There are five stamens that tightly surround the style which has an appendage at its tip. Styles are exserted from the corolla when the flower opens. The flowerhead stalk has 0 to 3 green leafy bracts which graduate into the phyllaries which enclose the bell shaped flowerhead, usually in 4 to 6 series; these are long with spreading tips, generally linear to linear-lanceolate in shape with a center green zone. They may or may not have some fine hair on the surface.

Seed: Fertile flowers produce a 3 to 4 nerved purple to brown dry cypsela, 2.5 - 3.5 mm long, with white pappus attached for wind dispersion. The seeds require 60 days of cold stratification for germination.

Varieties: Two varieties of the species are accepted: var. puniceum and var. scabricaule. Only the former is found in Minnesota. The differences are in the size of the upper leaves and the amount of hair on the stem. See more extensive notes at the page bottom.

Habitat: Purplestem Aster prefers a moist soil base and full sun such as in marsh edges, stream edges and moist meadows. Standing water is not tolerated. It grows from a short rhizomatous root system, sometimes with long rhizomes and sometimes develops woody caudices.

Names: The older scientific name for this aster is Aster puniceus. All the new world asters, formerly in the genus Aster, have now been reclassified, most into the genus Symphyotrichum. The genus name is from the Greek symphysis, for 'junction', and 'trichos', for hair and, while obscure, it was first applied by Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck in the 1800s in describing the type aster for the genus. The species name puniceum simply means 'reddish-purple'. The author names for the plant classification are: ‘A.Löve’ is for Áskell Löve (1916-1994) Icelandic botanist, co-founder of the Flora-Europaea project and professor at various universities in North America. ‘D.Löve’ is for Doris Löve (1918-2000), Swedish systematic botanist, active in the Arctic and collaborator with Áskell Löve on numerous publications. Together they updated the work of '(L.)' which refers to Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), Swedish botanist and the developer of the binomial nomenclature of modern taxonomy.

Comparisons: A similarly colored aster with large flowers and leaves that clasp is the New England Aster, but that species is found in more upland sites and has many more ray florets. A very similar aster is Glossy-leaved Aster, Symphyotrichum firmum. However, Flora of North America states that many attributions to this aster are in fact a smoother stemmed white flower version of S. puniceum and that more work is needed to verify the status of S. firmum. The University of Minnesota Herbarium on their Checklist (Ref. #28C) lists both species but with the same name - Purplestem Aster. USDA does not even list S. firmum as a separate species. There is no record of S. firmum having been planted by either Eloise Butler or Martha Crone.