Author | (E.S. Burgess) Nesom | |
Distribution | Mountains only, but found throughout the province and undoubtedly occurs in all counties there.
Western VA and WV, south to northwestern SC and northern GA. | |
Abundance | Fairly common to frequent, and locally common, but only at middle and higher elevations. | |
Habitat | Northern hardwood forests, spruce-fir forests; at middle to high elevations. |
Phenology | Flowering and fruiting August-October. | |
Identification | The genus Eurybia has been split from Aster (now Symphyotrichum). Variation among species of each genus requires several steps in a key to split members of the two genera apart (see genus key in Weakley 2018).
Mountain Wood-aster is closely related to White Wood-aster (E. divaricata) and both have taper-pointed, heart-shaped leaves with long stalks and long white ray florets. Mountain Wood-aster has longer rays (10-20 mm long vs. a maximum of 15 mm long) and the involucre (comprised of the bracts of the flower head) is 7-10 mm long (vs. less than 7 mm long). | |
Taxonomic Comments | By some authors treated as a variety of E. divaricata.
| |
Other Common Name(s) | Blue Ridge White Heartleaf Aster, Appalachian Heartleaf Aster, Mountain Aster | |
State Rank | S3 | |
Global Rank | G4 | |
State Status | | |
US Status | | |
USACE-agcp | | |
USACE-emp | | |