Common Blue Wood Aster
Growth Habit
HerbaceousPropagation
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 blue aster and eighteen other plants in an incense to attract deer for hunting.
Wildlife Value
Heart-leaved blue 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.
Location
Edwards Lake Cliffs Preserve, Mundy Wildflower GardenCultivation
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.
Source of plant
North Creek Nurseries, The Plantsmen
