Perennials, 60-160(-200) cm, colonial; long-rhizomatous. Stems 1, erect (straight, stout, sometimes purplish pink), mostly glabrous, hirsutulous in arrays, mainly in lines. Leaves firm, margins serrate to serrulate, scabridulous, apices acute to shortly acuminate, apiculate to mucronate, abaxial faces glabrous, adaxial scabridulous; basal withering by flowering, long-petiolate (petioles narrowly winged, sheathing), blades elliptic, 50-250 × 10-50 mm, bases attenuate; proximal cauline withering by flowering, long-petiolate to subpetiolate (petioles winged, bases expanded, sheathing), blades elliptic to lanceolate or oblanceolate, gradually reduced distally, 70-110 × 15-35 mm, bases attenuate; distal subpetiolate or sessile, (petioles broadly winged, bases sheathing to clasping), blades elliptic, 10-70 × 1-30 mm, progressively reduced distally, more strongly so on branches, bases attenuate to cuneate, clasping, margins serrulate or entire. Heads in paniculiform arrays, branches strongly ascending, leafy. Peduncles 0.5-2.5 cm, to erect, hirsute, bracts 3-5, linear, grading into phyllaries. Involucres narrowly campanulate, 8-11 mm. Phyllaries in 5-6 series, linear-lanceolate or -oblanceolate to linear, slightly unequal, bases indurate 1 / 3 - 1 / 2 , margins narrowly scarious, hyaline, sparsely and remotely ciliolate, green zones lanceolate to linear, outer distally foliaceous, sometimes constricted in middle, apices spreading to squarrose, long-acuminate, apiculate, faces glabrous. Ray florets (25-)30-46+; corollas pink or sometimes lavender, laminae 7-14 × 0.8-1.6 mm. Disc florets 25-35+; corollas pale yellow becoming pink and later brown, 6-6.2 mm, tubes slightly shorter than narrowly funnelform limbs, lobes narrowly triangular to lanceolate, 0.8-1 mm. Cypselae tan to pale brown, oblanceoloid, compressed, 2-2.7 mm, 3-4-nerved, faces glabrous or sparsely hairy; pappi sordid or whitish, 5.5-5.8 mm. 2n = 16. Flowering Aug-Oct. Moist, low sites, swamps, bogs, marshes, brackish marshes; 0-50+ m; Ala., Fla., Ga., La., N.C., S.C., Va. Symphyotrichum elliottii grows on the Atlantic coastal plain. It is of conservation concern in some states.
Colonial from well developed creeping rhizomes, 6-15 dm, tending to be somewhat succulent; stem puberulent in lines, at least above; lvs glabrous beneath, scaberulous above, serrate, the lowermost ones enlarged, long-petiolate, with elliptic blade to 25 נ5 cm, but sometimes early deciduous, the cauline ones ±reduced upwards, becoming sessile or nearly so with ±sheathing but not auriculate base; infl corymbiform or paniculiform; invol 8-11 mm, its bracts not much if at all imbricate, glabrous except for the sometimes ciliolate margins, narrow with long-attenuate, loose or somewhat squarrose green tip (this well under 1 mm wide), or the inner purplish instead of green; rays 25-45, pink or sometimes lavender, 7-12 mm; achenes glabrous or sparsely hairy; 2n=16. Swamps and other moist low places; se. Va. to Fla. and Ala.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.