Western Showy Aster

Eurybia conspicua is a western boreo-montane taxon; it ranges from the Interior Mountains and Plateaus to the Rocky Mountains, and spreads onto the northern Great Plains in the aspen parklands-southern boreal forests of Canada, barely into western Manitoba. It is disjunct to the Black Hills (South Dakota) and Cypress Hills (Alberta-Saskatchewan). It stops at the Canadian Shield due to soil preferences (A. J. Breitung 1988). This taxon has the highest chromosome number in the genus.

Plants 30–100 cm; forming loose clones, short-stipitate-glandular; rhizomes long to short, woody. Stems 1, erect, seldom branched proximally, stout, proximally glabrate to villous and sparsely glandular (sometimes to base), distally glabrate, strongly glandular. Leaves cauline, thick, ample, bases clasping, margins ± revolute, sharply serrate (rarely subentire) with ± mucronate teeth, veins prominent, apices acute to acuminate, mucronate, faces scabrous, adaxial veins villous; proximal cauline deciduous by flowering, winged-subpetiolate to sessile, blades oblanceolate to ovate or obovate, smaller than mid, bases tapering; mid usually sessile, sometimes subsessile, obovate or elliptic, (40–)58–140(–180) × (8–)20–50(–80) mm, bases cuneate to mostly rounded-subauriculate; distal (in arrays) sessile, ovate to oblanceolate, lanceolate, or elliptic, (8–)10–60(–90) × 2–28(–40) mm, strongly reduced distally. Heads 5–50 in open corymbiform arrays. Peduncles sometimes sparsely hairy, stipitate-glandular; bracts usually 0, sometimes 1–3. Involucres campanulate, 9–12 mm, shorter than pappi. Phyllaries 34–55 in 4–5 series, midnerves translucent, strongly unequal, membranous, bases indurate, dark green distally, margins densely ciliate, apices spreading or ± squarrose, purple (mucro), acute or acuminate (sometimes mucronate), faces glabrous, densely stipitate-glandular; outer ovate or lanceolate; inner oblong-lanceolate, margins hyaline, often purplish distally, scarious. Ray florets 12–35; corollas blue or violet, (8–)10–15 × 1.2–2 mm. Disc florets 48–55; corollas yellow, 9–10 mm, slightly ampliate, tubes narrowly cylindric, slightly longer than narrowly funnelform throats, lobes erect, lanceolate, 0.7–1.3 mm. Cypselae tan, fusiform, ± compressed, 3–4 mm, ribs 8–10, appressed-setose; pappi of cinnamon to pinkish bristles 9–10 mm, about as long as disc corollas. 2n = ca. 108, ca. 122.

Aster conspicuus Lindley in W. J. Hooker, Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 7. 1834

More info for the terms: fire use, prescribed fire, restoration

Lyon's Research Paper and the following Research Project
Summaries also provide information on prescribed fire use and postfire
response of plant community species including western showy aster:

• Vegetation response to restoration treatments in ponderosa pine-Douglas-fir
  forests of western Montana
• Understory recovery after burning and reburning quaking aspen stands in
  central Alberta

western western showy aster
western showy aster
conspicuous aster
creeping aster

More info for the term: herb

Western showy aster is a native, perennial herb.  Its peduncle is 1 to 2 feet
(30-60 cm) tall, and it usually has several shorter sterile stems
arising from extensive creeping rhizomes [14].  Rhizomes grow 0.5 to 2.0
inches (0.5-5 cm) below the soil surface [4].  Flowers are borne in an
open, flat-topped inflorescence [10,14].

Western showy aster is distributed from Yukon Territory east to
Saskatchewan, south to northern Wyoming, and west to northeastern
Oregon [10,14].



Distribution of western western showy aster. Map courtesy of USDA, NRCS. 2018. The PLANTS Database.
National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC [2018, April 24] [26].

More info for the terms: fire regime, seed

Western showy aster is moderately resistant to fire, typically sprouting from
surviving rhizomes.  Rhizomes usually survive light- to
moderate-severity fires that do not cause excessive soil heating [4,8].

After fire, western showy aster also regenerates from wind-dispersed and
soil-stored seed [5,20,24].  Growth is stimulated after fire, resulting
in mass flowering in the first few postfire years [22,23,24].

FIRE REGIMES :
Find fire regime information for the plant communities in which this
species may occur by entering the species name in the FEIS home page under
"Find FIRE REGIMES".

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More info for the term: geophyte

Geophyte

Western showy aster occurs in continental boreal and cool-temperate climates on
moderately dry soils.  It is a common interior species on "water
shedding" sites [12].  It is most common in montane zones, but is also
found in forested areas of valley and lower subalpine zones [14].  In
Wyoming western showy aster occurs from 5,500 to 9,000 feet (1,667-2,727 m)
elevation.  In Montana it is found from 3,000 to 7,100 feet (910-2,152
m) elevation [6].

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This species is known to occur in association with the following cover types (as classified by the Society of American Foresters):

   201  White spruce
   205  Mountain hemlock
   206  Engelmann spruce - subalpine fir
   207  Red fir
   210  Interior Douglas-fir
   211  White fir
   212  Western larch
   213  Grand fir
   215  Western white pine
   218  Lodgepole pine
   219  Limber pine
   237  Interior ponderosa pine
   251  White spruce - aspen

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This species is known to occur in the following ecosystem types (as named by the U.S. Forest Service in their Forest and Range Ecosystem [FRES] Type classification):

   FRES20  Douglas-fir
   FRES21  Ponderosa pine
   FRES22  Western white pine
   FRES23  Fir - spruce
   FRES25  Larch
   FRES26  Lodgepole pine
   FRES29  Sagebrush

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This species is known to occur in association with the following plant community types (as classified by Küchler 1964):

More info for the terms: forest, shrub

   K002  Cedar - hemlock - Douglas-fir forest
   K004  Fir - hemlock forest
   K008  Lodgepole pine - subalpine forest
   K010  Ponderosa shrub forest
   K011  Western ponderosa forest
   K012  Douglas-fir forest
   K013  Cedar - hemlock - pine forest
   K014  Grand fir - Douglas-fir forest
   K015  Western spruce - fir forest
   K055  Sagebrush steppe

Western showy aster is a common constituent of summer diets of black bear in
lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) forests of Alberta [11].

Western showy aster is preferred forage for grizzly bears in the Bob Marshall
Wilderness Area, northwestern Montana [17].

Common plant associates of western showy aster include heartleaf arnica (Arnica
cordifolia), Lindley aster (Aster ciliolatus), pinegrass (Calamagrostis
rubescens), white spiraea (Spiraea betulifolia), huckleberry (Vaccinium
spp.), and elk sedge (Carex geyeri).

More info for the term: forb

Forb

More info for the terms: cover, forest, frequency, habitat type

Western showy aster cover decreased from 4.4 to 0.7 percent under heavy grazing
in a Douglas-fir forest in northern Idaho [27].  It also declined in
abundance and vigor following heavy grazing in a Douglas-fir vegetation
type in British Columbia [25], and decreased to 0.0 percent frequency
following 12 years of heavy grazing in a mountain meadow community in
northern Idaho [15].

Western showy aster increased following clearcutting in a Douglas-fir/ninebark
(Physocarpus malvaceus) habitat type in western Montana [1].

     ID  MT  OR  WA  WY  AB  BC  SK  YT

Western showy aster provides valuable forage for deer, elk, cattle, and domestic
sheep in Idaho and British Columbia [18,21].

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Western showy aster flowers in late summer throughout its range [14].

More info for the terms: cover, forest, frequency, moderate-severity fire

Western showy aster increases rapidly after fire [16,18].  Western showy aster exhibits
mass flowering in postfire years 1 and 2.  The extent of flowering is
directly related to prefire abundance and postfire survivorship
[22,23,24].  Western showy aster frequency increased from 8 percent before fire
to 20 percent 2 years after a moderate-severity fire in a Douglas-fir
forest in Idaho.  By postfire year 7, western showy aster frequency increased to
52 percent [16].  Following the 1977 Pattee Canyon Fire in Missoula,
Montana, western showy aster cover was 1.4 percent in 1978 and 2.0 percent in
1982 [16].

On ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir communities in the Blue Mountains
of northeastern Oregon, western showy aster frequency and cover were higher on
sites that had been thinned 6 years previously than on prescribed burned,
thinned-and-burned, or control sites. Western showy aster was determined to be
an indicator species for thinned sites (P≤0.05). For further information
on the effects of thinning and burning treatments on western showy aster and 48
other species, see the Research Project Summary of Youngblood and others'
[50] study.

More info for the terms: ground residual colonizer, herb, rhizome, secondary colonizer

   Rhizomatous herb, rhizome in soil
   Ground residual colonizer (on-site, initial community)
   Initial-offsite colonizer (off-site, initial community)
   Secondary colonizer - on-site seed

More info for the term: seed

Sexual:  Western showy aster reproduces by seed.  Seeds are wind dispersed long
distances and can germinate on bare soil [5,18,20].

Asexual:  Western showy aster sprouts from extensive, creeping rhizomes [4,18].

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This species can be found in the following regions of the western United States (according to the Bureau of Land Management classification of Physiographic Regions of the western United States):

    2  Cascade Mountains
    5  Columbia Plateau
    8  Northern Rocky Mountains
    9  Middle Rocky Mountains
   16  Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands

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More info for the terms: scarification, succession

Facultative Seral Species

Western showy aster is tolerant of both sun and shade.  Small colonies typically
establish following stand-destroying fires or clearcutting and site
scarification [20,22].  Western showy aster produces more vegetative growth and
fewer flowering stems with increasing shade in later succession [14].
It can, however, maintain extensive colonies beneath pine (Pinus spp.)
and open Douglas-fir canopies.  It is an indicator of late seres in
Douglas fir/ninebark (Physocarpus malvaceus) habitat types of central
Idaho [20].

Aster conspicuus Lindl. [10,14,28]

The currently accepted scientific name of western showy aster is Eurybia conspicua
(Lindl.) Nesom [29,30]. There are no recognized infrataxa.

More info for the terms: cover, grassland

Western showy aster is low in resistance to repeated human trampling, but it may
recover rapidly.  In montane grassland in Montana, western showy aster cover
increased more than 30 percent between the end of August and the
following June [3].

Eurybia conspicua, commonly known as the western showy aster, is a North American species of plants in the family Asteraceae. It is native to western Canada (from Manitoba to British Columbia) and the western United States (northern Cascades, northern Rockies, Black Hills, and other mountains of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota).

Eurybia conspicua is a perennial spreading by means of underground rhizomes, thus forming loose clonal colonies. Each plant can produce a flat-topped array of 5-50 flower heads, each head with 12–35 blue or violet ray florets surrounding 48–55 yellow disc florets.