COMPOSITE FAMILY COMPOSITAE 
GOLDEN ASTER 
Chrysopsis villosa Nutt. 
The Golden Aster is a hairy perennial of dry places from — 
Illinois to British Columbia and south to Alabama and New 
Mexico. It is locally quite abundant in some sand areas of this 
state and absent from 
others. The rough- © 
aN, Sew hairy, rigid stem is ~ 
CS aii // p> 1-2 feet high and its © 
TAIN SS — YH 
1h | NY lower leaves are nar- — 
ayy NW rowed into petioles, | 
i 4 whereas the upper are — 
sessile. 
The blooming sea- 
son is July and Au- — 
gust. The rather few 
heads terminating the 
short branches con- — 
tain both ray and 
disk flowers. The ob-— 
long to linear ray © 
flowers are golden and ~ 
the disk flowers, of — 
which the outermost — 
bloom first, are a 
shade darker yellow. 
The bracts of the in- | 
volucre are narrow — 
and hairy, the outer 
shorter. The receptacle is flat. The pappus is double, the outer 
bristles small and scalelike, and the inner long and threadlike. 
Both kinds of flowers produce hairy, flattened and rather oblong ~ 
akenes. 
The Maryland Golden Aster, Chrysopsis mariana (L.) Nutt., has 
broader leaves, sometimes 1 inch wide, and numerous golden yellow 
heads. The 1-2!4-foot stem is covered with long silky hairs or is 
smoothish when old. The upper leaves are oblong to lanceolate, 1-2 
inches long and sessile; the lower are oblanceolate or spatulate, 2-4 
inches long and narrowed into a petiole. This plant frequents the 
same soils as Golden Aster and is usually found with it, but blooms - 
generally a month later and on the whole is uncommon in Illinois 
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