Aster amellus

Aster amellus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Tribe: Astereae
Genus: Aster
Species: A. amellus
Binomial name
Aster amellus
L.

Aster amellus, the European Michaelmas Daisy, is a perennial herbaceous plant of the genus Aster, belonging to the Asteraceae family.

Etymology

The genus name (Aster) comes from the Greek and means "star-shaped flower." The specific name (amellus) is first used in the Georgics (Book IV, 271-280), a poem of the Latin poet Publius Vergilius Maro (70 BC - 19 BC), but the etymology is obscure and uncertain.

Description

Aster amellus reaches on average a height of 20–50 centimetres (7.9–19.7 in). 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 (autogamy) or pollinated by insects (entomogamy). 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 (Turkey), the Caucasus, Siberia and Central Asia (Kazakhstan).

Cultivation

Asters are valued in the garden for the fact that they provide 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:-

Aster, or Michaelmas Daisy grows in abundance on Anarchist Mountain, near Osoyoos at 3000' and in other places in the South Okanagan valley in British Columbia (Canada) on dry land and pasture. The mountain can be roughly two weeks to a month later than the valley bottom (lake level); ten degrees cooler in summer heat and warmer in winter, with good snow cover, hence soil moisture available.

Habitat

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 0–800 metres (0–2,625 ft) above sea level.

Synonyms

  • Amellus officinalis Gaterau
  • Amellus vulgaris Opiz
  • Aster acmellus Pall.
  • Aster albus Willd. ex Spreng.
  • Aster amelloides Hoffm.
  • Aster amellus subsp. bessarabicus (Bernh. ex Rchb.) Soó
  • Aster atticus Pall.
  • Aster bessarabicus Bernh. ex Rchb.
  • Aster collinus Salisb.
  • Aster elegans Nees
  • Aster noeanus Sch.Bip. ex Nyman
  • Aster ottomanum Velen.
  • Aster pseudoamellus DC.
  • Aster purpureus Gueldenst. ex Ledeb.
  • Aster scepusiensis Kit. ex Kanitz
  • Aster tinctorius Wallr.
  • Aster trinervius Gilib.
  • Diplopappus asperrimus (Nees) DC.
  • Diplopappus laxus Benth.
  • Galatella asperrima Nees
  • Kalimares amellus (L.) Raf. ex B.D.Jacks. (1894)

Gallery

References

  1. ↑ "RHS Plant Selector Aster amellus 'Framfieldii' AGM / RHS Gardening". Apps.rhs.org.uk. Retrieved 2012-06-16.
  2. ↑ "RHS Plant Selector Aster amellus 'Jacqueline Genebrier' AGM / RHS Gardening". Apps.rhs.org.uk. Retrieved 2012-06-16.
  3. ↑ "RHS Plant Selector Aster amellus 'King George' AGM / RHS Gardening". Apps.rhs.org.uk. Retrieved 2012-06-16.
  4. ↑ "RHS Plant Selector Aster amellus 'Veilchenkönigin' AGM / RHS Gardening". Apps.rhs.org.uk. Retrieved 2012-06-16.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aster amellus.