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.
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). 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.
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. 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.
