BLUE FLEABANE

Erigeron acris

(Formerly: Erigeron acer)
Daisy Family [Asteraceae]  

Flowers:
month8jun month8june month8jul month8july month8Aug month8sep month8sept

Pappus: pappusZpossible (off-white, simple)
pappus8aug pappus8sep pappus8sept pappus8oct pappus8nov

status
statusZnative
flower
flower8bicolour
flower
flower8lilac
inner
inner8yellow
morph
morph8actino
petals
petalsZmany
stem
stem8square
stem
stem8round
sex
sexZbisexual

18th Sept 2008, Rochdale Canal, Castleton, Gtr M/cr. Photo: © RWD
Shortish, up to 60cm tall, little-branched.


25th May 2006, Burscough Bridge Railway Station. Photo: © RWD
Short lilac coloured ray florets, shorter yellow inner disc florets. Un-toothed lanceolate hairy leaves.


25th May 2006, Burscough Bridge Railway Station. Photo: © RWD
Flower never opens flat just like groundsel.


18th Sept 2008, Rochdale Canal, Castleton, Gtr M/cr. Photo: © RWD
Lilac outer ray florets are short with one notch and usually proceed upwards half hiding the shorter inner yellow disc florets. Some of the outer disc florets have already transformed into pappus hairs (the ring of white feathery hairs just within the lilac ray florets).


9th Sept 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dunes, Sefton Coastal Path, Merseyside. Photo: © RWD
The sepals are hairy, green at the base but becoming purple at the tips, keep close to the flower. The stem tends towards purple, is square, and the branches are few, as are stem leaves.


8th July 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dunes, Sefton Coastal Path, Merseyside. Photo: © RWD
The flowers of an individual plant at various stages of development from flower to pappus, which in Blue Fleabane, is an off-white yellowish tinge.


18th Sept 2008, Rochdale Canal, Castleton, Gtr M/cr. Photo: © RWD
This pappus also shows the long-tubed, spent disc florets in the centre which, on the flowers, were in the centre as seen on the remaining flowers still with their petals intact.


9th Sept 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dunes, Sefton Coastal Path, Merseyside. Photo: © RWD
Hairy sepals, green at the base and reddish-purple at the tip. Sepal teeth very long and reddish-purple. Upright lilac ray-florets (or 'petals') thin and slightly splayed outwards. Inner pappus developing.


9th Sept 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dunes, Sefton Coastal Path, Merseyside. Photo: © RWD
Plant on mature sand dunes gone to pappus, about to shed seeds on the wing.


9th Sept 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dunes, Sefton Coastal Path, Merseyside. Photo: © RWD
The seed clock head is off white, slightly yellowish. The small light-coloured circles are the tops of the longish seeds themselves.


20th Aug 20014, Ainsdale Sand Dunes, Sefton Coastal Path, Merseyside. Photo: © RWD
The seeds themselves can just be discerned. The parachutes are simple (rather than compound with the seed attached to the parachute hairs by a single shorter hair).


9th Sept 2009, Ainsdale Sand Dunes, Sefton Coastal Path, Merseyside. Photo: © RWD
The seeds have parachuted away on most of the dead flowers.


18th Sept 2008, Rochdale Canal, Castleton, Gtr M/cr. Photo: © RWD
The stems are square, and in places could be octagonal (or square-chamfered).


7th Aug 2007, Burscough Bridge Railway Station. Photo: © RWD
Stem leaves are hairy all sides and half clasp the stem.


6th Sept 2015, dunes, Hightown, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
The long and tubular (with ridges) dark-brown seeds with an off-white simple pappus


Blue Fleabane can relieve tooth-ache and arthritic pains. It inhabits dry grassy places, stone walls and dunes.

Blue Fleabane used to form Erigeron X Conyza being a forbidden Inter-Genera hybrid with Canadian Fleabane (Conyza canadensis) called X Conyzigeron huelsenii, the genera of which (Conyzigeron) is a semantic amalgamation of Erigeron and Conyza. This inter-genera hybrid occurs only sporadically when the two parents are present nearby - in disturbed sandy places in Southern England. This hybrid is sterile and is intermediate in hairiness between the two species with pale-mauve ray-florets (which are not splayed out and hardly protrude from the phyllaries). BSBI distribution of X Conyzigeron huelsenii. But now because the genus Conyza has been renamed Erigeron such a 'forbidden' hybrid no longer occurs. It is now a legitimate hybrid.

A new glycoside, AcetylArabinoside, has been found in Blue Fleabane.

POLYACETYLENES (POLYYNES)


The essential oils obtained from the roots contains two polyacetylene esters, 2Z,8Z-Matricaria Ester (at 37% concentration) and Lachnophyllum Ester (at 49%) amongst many other very minor compounds (<1.4% each). The (2Z,8Z)- designation refers to the positions of the cis-bends in the positional isomer -  IUPAC (E-,Z)-nomenclature. Matricaria Esters were first found in species of Matricaria (some Mayweeds), in particular, Scentless Mayweed (Tripleurospermum inodorum) [previously called Matricaria perforata, but now moved into the genus, Tripleurospermum where it accompanies Sea Mayweed].

Lachnophyllum Ester is a polyacetylenic compound with two triple-bonds not un-like Falcarinone found in Ivy. It is poisonous and also occurs not only in Daisy but also in Canadian Fleabane (Conyza canadensis). It was found in (Lachnophyllum gossypinum), a non-native plant which is also in the Dandelion & Daisy Family (Asteraceae).

AROMADENDRANE SESQUITERPENES


Blue Fleabane contains derivatives of aromadendrane-type sesquiterpenes, such as 4α-10β-alloaromadendranediol and 4β-10β-aromadendranediol. The Aromadendrane skeleton is shown with the three fused rings, one a three, another a five and the third a seven-membered ring bearing a resemblance to the Tigliane Series. Alongside it is one of the Aromadendranes, a spiro-Aromadendrane, name unknown, which is found within Blue Fleabane.


  Erigeron acris  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Asteraceae  

Distribution
family8Daisy family8dandelion family8Asteracaea
 BSBI maps
genus8erigeron
Erigeron
(Fleabanes)

FLEABANE

Erigeron acris

(Formerly: Erigeron acer)
Daisy Family [Asteraceae]  

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