Sericocarpus caespitosus G.L. Nesom

Clumped Whitetop Aster

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Clumped Whitetop Aster is a native perennial in the Aster family (Asteraceae). It can be found throughout eastern and southern Alabama. Clumped Whitetop Aster grows in dry sandy or clay soils of fields, pine woods, mixed pine and hardwood forests, and roadsides. It is a short plant, growing from 1-2 feet tall. One or more flowering stems emerge from a basal rosette of leaves. The basal leaves are winged-petiolate, oblanceolate to spatulate in outline, pubescent with short hairs, and with serrate margins. The leaves on the flowering stems are sessile, ovate to lanceolate in outline, pubescent with short hairs, and with serrate or entire margins. The leaves become small near the flowering heads. Flowers are produced in heads arranged in corymbs. The heads are elongate with prominent recurved phyllaries (bracts). Each head has 3-7 white ray flowers and 9-20 white or cream disc flowers. The fruit is an achene.--A. Diamond

When Nesom (2021) described the non-rhizomatous <b><i>Sericocarpus caespitosus</i></b>, he indicated that all material in Alabama that had traditionally been treated as <b><i>Sericocarpus asteroides</i></b> (L.) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb. [=<i>Aster paternus</i> Cronq] was identifiable with the new taxon. This excludes the rhizomatous <b><i>S. asteroides</i></b> from the Alabama flora as the current range (as indicated by Nesom) is restricted to the Atlantic Coastal Plain from northern South Carolina to southern Maine.--B.R. Keener

Native

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