The status of Aster commixtus and a new species of Aster from the southeastern United States

Multivariate statistical techniques are used to show that the type specimen of Eurybia commixia Nees [=Aster commixtus (Nees) Kuntze] belongs to A. spectabilis Aiton. The two species are, therefore, conspecific and the names E. commixta and A. commixtus are later synonyms for A. spectabilis. Statistical analyses also demonstrate that the plants native to the southeastern United States to which the name A. commixtus has been applied do not belong to A. spectabilis, but to two other distinct species, the diploid A. mirabilis Torrey & A. Gray, and a previously unnamed hexaploid species, A. jonesiae Lamboy, described here as new.