Marsh Boltonia (Boltonia asteroides)
- Family: Aster (Asteraceae)
- Flowering: July-October.
- Field Marks: This white-rayed species is
distinguished by its completely unwinged stems.
- Habitat: Wet prairies, wet meadows, along streams,
roadside ditches, around ponds and lakes, marshes.
- Habit: Perennial herb with slender rhizomes.
- Stems: Erect, branched or unbranched, smooth, up to 7
feet tall.
- Leaves: Alternate, simple, lanceolate, pointed at the
tip, tapering to the base, blue-green, smooth, up to 4 inches
long, up to 2/3 inch wide.
- Flowers: Many crowded into a head, the outer white
and ray-like, the inner tubular, yellow, forming a disk, each
head subtended by numerous small, green bracts.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: Some white to pale lilac, united to form
rays, up to 2/3 inch long, others yellow, united to form a tube.
- Stamens: 5.
- Pistils: Ovary inferior.
- Fruits: Achenes flattened winged, ciliate, about 1/10
inch long, with 2 small awns at the upper end.
- Notes: The small fruits of this species are eaten by
waterfowl.
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