Common Blue Wood Aster

Other names

Heart-Leaved Aster

Growth habit

Herbaceous

Native distribution

Native to the Finger Lakes Region, E North America

Cultivation

A 15-24"" aster with white to pale blue flowers. Makes a good ground cover.
Light: sun to part shade
Moisture and Soil: moist to dry soil

Propagation

Seed Treatment and Storage: store seed cool & dry; Cold/moist stratify OR sow at 70 deg. F.

Biocultural value

The Ojibwa used the root of heart-leaved aster and eighteen other plants in an incense to attract dear for hunting.

Wildlife value

Heart-leaved aster flowerheads attract many kinds of insects, including long-tongued bees, short-tongued bees, wasps, flies, butterflies, skippers, and beetles. Many insects feed on the foliage, including leaf beetles, the larvae of leaf-mining flies and fruit flies, plant bugs, stink bugs, lace bugs, aphids, leafhoppers, and the caterpillars of several butterfly and moth species. Other wildlife use asters to a limited degree. Ruffed grouse, wild turkey, and tree sparrows eat the leaves and/or seeds, as do mammals like chipmunks, white-footed mice and white-tailed deer.

Poisonous

no

Location

Mundy Wildflower Garden, Edwards Lake Cliffs Preserve, McLean Bogs, South Hill Swamp

Source of plant

North Creek Nurseries, The Plantsmen

Description

Perennial herb to 1.5m; stems glabrous or hirsute. Leaves to 12x10cm, narrowly to broadly cordate, petioles scarcely winged, lower leaves long-petiolate. Capitula 2cm in diameter, radiate, in a loose panicle; phyllaries narrow, obtuse, purple at apex; ray florets 8-20, pale blue; disc florets yellow.

USDA Hardiness Zone

4

Status

L4|S5|G5