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- 

 hairy, rigid stem is 

 1-2 feet high and its 

 lower leaves are nar- 

 rowed into petioles, 

 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 i inch wide, and numerous golden yellow 

 heads. The \-2}i-{oot stem is covered with long silky hairs or is 

 smoothish when old. The upper leaves are oblong to lanceolate, i-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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