San Bernardino aster is an erect rhizomatous perennial growing to 3-1/2' tall.  The acute alternate leaves are narrowly oblong to oblanceolate and covered with strigose hairs, and there are often fascicles of smaller leaves in the axils.  The flowering heads are in narrow cymes, with ± oblong phyllaries that are ciliate and pubescent on the back, the outer obtuse-tipped and the inner acute.  The many ray flowers are white to pale violet with corollas 3/8" to 1/2" long.  San Bernardino aster grows in grasslands and disturbed places to about 4500' in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mts and the Peninsular Range, blooming July to November.  These pictures were taken at the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Aster 2) bernardinus.
Pronunciation: AS-ter ber-nar-DEE-nus.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.