Simmonds' Aster

It’s a question we’ve asked before. Different plants, different names. Usually we come up with an answer, at least with a reasonable degree of certainty. In this case, we can’t despite spending an inordinate amount of time trying to track it down:

Who is Simmonds and why is Simmonds’ aster his aster? Simmonds’ aster as in Symphyotrichum simmondsii, so named as by the eminent naturalist, John Kunkel Small, who first discovered and described it while hiking the wilds of South Florida.

In the cosmic scheme of things it doesn’t really matter, except it did matter to Small, obviously, and that’s enough for us. More on this in a bit, but it’s time to fill in a few blanks about the plant itself.

It is a Florida native, and by most accounts, Simmonds’ aster is widespread throughout most of the Sunshine State, both in the Peninsula and in the Panhandle. It is considered somewhat rare in Miami-Dade County, which is where Small came across it way back in the early 20th century. Small published his description in 1913.

We say by most accounts because the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s PLANTS database lists Marion as the only Florida county where it’s been vouchered or scientifically verified. The Florida Plant Atlas, by contrast, has it in three-quarters of the state, roughly speaking. On the other hand, the Institute for Regional Conservation, which focuses solely on South Florida, has inventoried Simmonds’ aster only in one preserve, Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County. Going back to the previous hand, we found Simmonds' in Martin County but in Dupuis Wildlife and Environmental Area near Lake Okeechobee. Why the descrepancies? Beats us. Anyway, onward.

Simmonds’ aster is short to medium height, usually between one and three feet tall, though some references say it can reach four feet. it is an erect plant, usually, with one to three woody stems. Leaves grow alternately along the stem and are sort of club-shaped — narrow at the base, becoming progressively wider along the length, then rapidly narrows again, coming to a sharp (acute) point at the tip or apex.

The apex sometimes extends slightly outward from the body of the leaf, in which case it’s acuminate. The leaves lack hairs (glabrous) but are still rough to the touch, or scabrous, as botantists call it. Leaves join the branch directly without a petiole, or pronounced joint.

The flowers are produced at the leaf axils, the point where leaves meet the stem. The heads are about an inch across, with as many as three dozen petals varying in color from pale to pink to light purple surrounding a yellow disc. Like most asters, Simmonds’ blooms from fall to early winter. The plant goes dormant in winter, dying back to the ground, then re-emerges come spring.

Simmonds’ spreads via rhizomes, a kind of underground stem, and can form small colonies. And like asters generally, it is a magnet for pollinators.

Simmonds’ aster prefers open, moist or wet habitats — wet prairies, wet flatwoods or ditches — places with full sun or partial shade.

More about its natural range: as noted above, Simmonds’ aster is found throughout most of Florida. It’s also found in South Carolina and North Carolina along the coastal plain. Some sources include Georgia, some not. At some point New Jersey was included as part of its range, but the Flora of North America says it was likely a misidentification.

Simmonds’ has had limited uses for us humans. It is not sold by commercial nurseries and not normally used in gardens. On the other hand, the Seminoles did use Simmonds’ to make an infusion for treating sunstroke.

And now for the rest of the “Simmonds’” story. Small originally gave the plant the binomial, or scientific name, of Aster simmondsii. But he also apparently found some Simmonds’ plants varied enough from the others to be classified as another species, Aster sulzner. Sulzner, however, is no longer recognized by the taxonomic powers that be.

Ultimately, a guy named Guy L. Nesom came along. Nesom, a University of North Carolina-trained Ph.D researcher, taxonomic expert and advocate for separating Aster into different genera, reclassified Small’s find as Symphyotrichum simmondsii, the presently accepted scientific name. Symphyotrichum, by the way, was established as a genus in 1833 by the German naturalist, Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck. It was unrecognized by the scientific community, however, until Nesom's work in 1994. There are more than 100 species within Symphyotrichum, most of which are native to North America and sometimes collectively called American asters.

As to who is Simmonds, using various databases and numerous sources that describe the plant, we could not solve the mystery. We found a few candidates, but none really quite fit with a reasonable degree of confidence. He (or she) remains both remembered in a sense, but also apparently forgotten.

Simmonds’ aster is a member of Asteraceae, the sunflower famly.

Dupuis Wildlife and Environmental Area