Aster amellus


Aster amellus, the European Michaelmas daisy, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the genus Aster of the family Asteraceae.

Etymology

The specific name amellus is first used in the Georgics, a poem of the Latin poet Publius Vergilius Maro, but the etymology is obscure and uncertain.

Description

Aster amellus reaches on average a height of. The stem is erect and branched, the leaves are dark green. The basal leaves are obovate and petiolated, the cauline ones are alternate and sessile, increasingly narrower and lanceolate. The flowers are lilac. The flowering period extends from July through October. The hermaphroditic flowers are either self-fertilized or pollinated by insects. The seeds are an achene that ripens in October.

Distribution

This plant is present on the European mountains from the Pyrenees and the Alps to the Carpathians. Outside Europe it is located in western Asia, the Caucasus, Siberia and Central Asia.

Cultivation

Asters are valued in the garden for late summer and autumn colour in shades of blue, pink and white. This species has several cultivars of ornamental garden use. The following have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:-
The typical habitat is rocky limy areas, the edges of the bushes and copses, but also the sub-alpine meadows, marshy places and lake sides. It prefers calcareous and slightly dry substrate with basic pH and low nutritional value, at an altitude of above sea level.

In Literature

The Michaelmas Daisy is one of Letitia Elizabeth Landon's earliest poems.

Synonyms

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