Thickstem aster is a leafy weed of the composite, or aster family 

 (Compositae, or Asteraceae), with one or several stems growing from 

 thick, creeping, perennial rootstocks. The name integrifolius is a 

 Latin adjective compounded from integer (-ra, -rum], whole or 

 entire (hence, untoothed) and folium, leaf. Thickstem aster is 

 confined chiefly to the mountains from Washington and Montana 

 to Colorado and California. It occurs mostly at elevations above 

 5,000 feet in the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains and at some- 

 what lower elevations in the Cascade Mountains of Washington and 

 Oregon. It prefers moist loam or often somewhat gravelly soils, 

 being most abundant in meadows and parks along the edges of timber 

 but also appearing in open timber and woodlands and to some extent 

 in sagebrush types. This weed is often associated with goldenrod, 

 lupine, yarrow, bromegrass, fescue, willow, and sagebrush. Although 

 fairly common throughout its range and relatively abundant in some 

 localities, this plant is principally scattered in its distribution. 



Throughout its more northerly range, thickstem aster is especially 

 prized as a fall elk weed; moreover in many parts of this region it 

 is fair or fairly good sheep feed. Elsewhere it is, at best, only fair 

 forage for sheep and goats, poor for cattle, and practically worthless 

 for horses. It may be valuable as forage for elk and possibly also 

 for deer over much of its range. In California, where this species 

 is fairly common, it is considered poor forage even for sheep. Hence 

 extensive utilization of this plant on California sheep ranges is a 

 probable warning of overgrazing and range depletion. 



The stems of thickstem aster are usually from about 8 to 20 inches 

 tall and grow in small tufts, usually several arising from a stout 

 often branched rootstock, although sometimes the bunches are con- 

 siderably larger. The stems are often reddish, are usually more or 

 less hairy toward the base and glandular-hairy or sticky toward the 

 top. The lower leaves are large, comparatively narrow, and de- 

 cidedly variable in shape, in some plants being broadest toward the 

 tip and in others toward the base. The basal leaves taper into a 

 winged stalk (petiole), but the stem leaves, which are smaller than 

 the basal ones, are without stalks, their bases more or less clasping 

 the stem. The plants start flowering about the middle of July and 

 continue until early fall, the several short-stalked flower heads, about 

 1 inch across and one-half of an inch high, being borne in a rather 

 narrow cluster toward the top of the stem. The petal-like ray- 

 flowers are deep bluish purple, and the involucres and stems of the 

 heads are glandular. The involucral bracts are rather loosely ar- 

 ranged in three or four rows, the outer ones being nearly as long 

 as the usually purple-tinged inner ones. 



