Calico Aster, Side-flowering Aster, Symphyotrichum lateriflorum L. [Aster lateriflorus], Native Minnesota Wildflower plant, Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden, side-Flowering Aster

	Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden
	Common Name	Scientific Name	Plant Family	Garden Location	Prime Season
	Side-flowering Aster	Symphyotrichum lateriflorum (L.) A. Love & D. Love[older - Aster lateriflorus]	Aster	Woodland	Late summer into Autumn
Other names and notes	(Calico Aster). This aster has very small flower heads with 9 to 15 white to purple tinged rays, on loose clusters, mainly to one side of widely spaced branches, hence the common name of "side-flowering"; leaves are oval to rounded, uppers mostly stalkless, lower with stalks, sometimes with a few sharp teeth near the middle.


Above: The flowering side branches. Right: A side branch.	Below: An upper leaf - that touches but does not clasp the stem

Notes: Eloise Butler first noted this aster growing in the Garden on Sept. 12, 1909. This plant was listed on Martha Crone's 1951 inventory of plants in the Garden at that time. A subspecies of this plant (S. lateriflorum (L.) A. Löve & D. Löve var. lateriflorum) is native to Minnesota in the northern 2/3rds of the state. That particular scientific name is the current nomenclature for the species Aster lateriflorus var. hirsuticaulis that Eloise Butler wrote about in 1915 in Asters in the Wild Garden: "O, you cunning little thing!" we exclaim at the wee blossoms peeping out through the leaves densely clothing the diffusely branched stems of Aster lateriflorus - the so-called calico aster - the purple disks and pale rays forming a pattern on the background of the small green leaves. Aster lateriflorus var. hirsuticaulis has somewhat larger flowers with yellow disks and seems to form a connecting link with A. tradescanti, the Michaelmas daisy, [note: now known as the Ontario or Bottomland Aster] which is also sparsely found in the Garden. The variety has a stricter habit than the type."

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References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.

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