Gray Aster

Perennials, 20–70 cm, colonial and cespitose, ± glaucous, sometimes stipitate-glandular distally; rhizomes woody, elongate and creeping, or short, erect, branched. Stems 1–7+, erect, sometimes branched proximally, straight, glabrous proximally, sometimes thinly scabridulous distally. Leaves cauline; proximal reduced, withering by flowering, firm; sessile; blades oblong or elliptic-oblong to lanceolate (sometimes narrowly), 40–120 × 5–25 mm, bases ± clasping, sometimes cuneate, main veins ± marked, margins entire, indurate, sparsely to densely scabridulous, apices acute to obtuse, mucronate (margins recurved at apex), faces glabrous. Heads 2–116+ usually in corymbiform, sometimes in open, paniculiform arrays. Peduncles glabrous to sometimes thinly scabridulous or villosulous; bracts 0–2, foliaceous, margins villose-ciliate or glabrous. Involucres campanulate, 6–9 mm. Phyllaries (15–35) in 4–5 series, keeled or rounded, ovate or oblong (outer) to lanceolate (inner), unequal, membranous, bases indurate, green zones in distal ¹ / 5 – ¹ / 3 or less (outer), reduced to midnerve or none (inner), margins erose, narrowly scarious, hyaline, sometimes purplish distally (inner), entire to villoso-ciliolate, apices ± appressed, obtuse or acute (outer), often purple and acute or acuminate (inner), sometimes apiculate, faces glabrous. Ray florets (8–)10–15(–19); corollas pale lavender, 8–18 × 0.7–1.3 mm. Disc florets 12–32; corollas yellow turning reddish purple, barely or not ampliate, 6.8–7.5 mm, tubes narrowly cylindric, shorter than funnelform throats, lobes spreading, lanceolate, 0.7–1.3 mm. Cypselae tan to stramineous, fusiform, ± compressed, 3.8–4.8 mm, ribs 7–10 (stramineous), faces glabrous or sparsely strigillose; pappi of (ca. 37) yellowish to cinnamonish bristles 6.4–7.2 mm.

Eucephalus glaucus Nuttall, Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 7: 299. 1840; Aster glaucus (Nuttall) Torrey & A. Gray; A. glaucodes S. F. Blake; Eurybia glauca (Nuttall) G. L. Nesom

Herrickia glauca is a North American species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, called the gray aster. It is native to the western United States, primarily in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming, with a few populations in Idaho and Montana.

Herrickia glauca is a perennial herb or subshrub up to 70 centimeters (28 inches) tall from a woody rhizome. The plant produces flower heads numerous heads (sometimes over 100) in a flat-topped array. Each head contains 8-19 lavender ray florets surrounding 12-32 yellow or purplish disc florets.

Herrickia glauca (Nutt.) Brouillet as Aster Glaucus