Symphyotrichum lanceolatum (Willd.) G.L.Nesom

Perennials, 30–150(–200) cm, colonial; long-rhizomatous (rhi­zomes usually white, thick, con­torted). Stems 1, erect (straight, stout), glabrous or hairy. Leaves thin, scabrous, apices mucronate, abaxial faces glabrous (vein areoles indistinct, elongate), adaxial glabrous or sparsely scabrous (var. hesperium); basal withering by flowering, petiolate to subpetiolate (petioles winged, ciliate, bases dilated, sheathing), blades elliptic-oblanceolate or obovate to suborbiculate, 10–80 × 5–20 mm, cuneate to attenuate, margins crenate-serrate, apices acute to obtuse or rounded; proximal cauline withering by flowering, sessile or subsessile, blades lance-ovate or oblanceolate to linear-lanceolate, (40–)50–150 × (3–)10–20(–35) mm, progressively reduced distally, bases cuneate, ± decurrent, margins serrate, apices acute to acuminate; distal sessile, blades oblanceolate to linear, 30–100(–140) mm, only slightly reduced distally, bases cuneate, margins entire. Heads in ample or diffuse to narrow, elongate, leafy, paniculiform arrays, branches ± ascending, rarely secund, branch leaves often longer than pedicels. Peduncles 0.5–5 cm, ± pilose, bracts 1–3(–5), linear-oblanceolate to-lanceolate, foliaceous, ciliate. Involucres campanulate to cylindric, 3–8 mm. Phyllaries in (3–)4–6 series, appressed or slightly spreading, linear-lanceolate to linear (innermost), sometimes slightly dilated distally, ± strongly unequal to subequal (var. hesperium), bases indurate 1 / 4 – 1 / 2 , margins scarious, erose, hyaline, sparsely ciliolate, green zones lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, outer sometimes foliaceous (particularly var. hesperium), apices acute to acuminate (outer) or acuminate to caudate (inner), mostly mucronulate, abaxial faces glabrous, adaxial sparsely strigillose. Ray florets 16–50; corollas white to pinkish or pale blue-violet, laminae 3–10(–14) × 0.5–1.3 mm. Disc florets (13–)20–40(–52); corollas yellow becoming purple, 2.8–5.8 mm, tubes shorter than funnelform throats, lobes sometimes ± spreading, triangular, 0.4–1.2 mm. Cypselae gray or tan, obovoid, ± compressed, 1.5–2 mm, 4–5-nerved, faces sparsely strigillose; pappi white to sordid or tawny, 5.5–6 mm.

Full sun to partial shade, margins of streams, edges of thickets, meadows, fields, ditches; at elevations from sea level to 900 metres or more.

Can be grown by cuttings, divisions or seedlings.