Plant Species of the Bright Angel Trail:
White Aster, Chaetopappa ericoides
White Aster, Chaetopappa ericoides
See Plant Guide to Bright Angel Trail for an introduction to this page, especially the Introduction To These Species Pages.
Characteristics
Synonym: Leucelene ericoides.
Identification status: 95% at best, since I haven't seen any flowers on this plant yet. The identification comes only from checking pictures for species on the plant list for this area. The habit, the leaves, and the buds, match these pictures of Chaetopappa ericoides.
From a SEINet search on 11 May 2008, there are four vouchers of this species from this area of the Grand Canyon. The nearest are at: south Rim, ca. 3 mi W of El Tovar; and Grandview. Note that there may be additional vouchers at other herbaria not available through SEINet.
First occurrence on Bright Angel Trail: mile 0.44, elevation 6600 feet (2012 m).
Number of plants along Trail: Only a single plant was found on the trail in May 2008, but there are a number of plants in the parking lot for the trailhead.
Pictures
From 4 May 2008, mile 0.44:
References
See Resources for Grand Canyon Flora for further information on most of these references. Entries in the second column are either the name used in that source or a page reference. The name is linked to online pages when available. If a given reference does not contain this taxon, the entry is either left blank or contains a hyphen.