Ionactis alpina
Lava-aster, crag-aster, Crag-Aster
Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native
Lava-aster is a California native perennial found in western Sierra Nevada, northern Sierra Nevada, and White and Inyo Mountains in dry, rocky places often associated with sagebrush at elevations of 1,300 to 3,000 meters. Flowering from May to July, this plant produces violet to purple ray flowers 7 to 12 millimeters long in solitary heads with distinctive lance-linear phyllaries. Growing with compact stems 4 to 12 centimeters tall that are slightly hairy, it forms a fibrous-rooted caudex. Its leaves are narrow and firm, measuring 0.3 to 1.2 centimeters long, oblanceolate to elliptic, and densely covered in short hairs. The plant's delicate violet rays and compact growth make it a distinctive alpine wildflower adapted to high-elevation rocky environments.
Habitat: Dry, rocky places, often with sagebrush
Bloom period: May-Jul
Elevation: 1300-3000 m
Bioregions: Wrn, n SNE, W&I
California counties: Mono, Modoc
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.