tiarella
Alabama
Aromatic Aster in flower
Jay Pruett · CC BY 4.0 · source

Aromatic Aster

Symphyotrichum oblongifolium

Pearl Crescent caterpillars feed on its leaves. It grows wild in 8 of Alabama’s 67 counties.

Light
Full sun
Soil
Dry to moist soil
Size
2 ft to 3 ft tall, 2 ft wide
Flowers
Purple
Roots
Spreading rhizomes or runners; reach 2 ft down in open ground
Kind
Wildflower
Add to a bedPlan it in a pot

At its grown size

Aromatic Aster, drawn in a bed

in flower

What it feeds

Butterflies
Host plant for the Pearl Crescent
Caterpillars
71 kinds of caterpillars
Bees
79 kinds of native bees
Birds
3 kinds of birds
On its flowers
Common eastern bumble bee (Bombus impatiens), Tri-colored bumble bee (Bombus ternarius), Ligated furrow bee (Halictus ligatus), Pure green sweat bee (Augochlora pura)

Grows well with

Eastern Smooth Beardtongue2.5 ft tallShowy Goldenrod4 ft tallOrange Coneflower2.5 ft tallCommon Wild Quinine3 ft tallDense Blazing-star4 ft tallSouthern Arrowwood8 ft tallRattlesnake-master5 ft tall

Facts from the Quercus record for Symphyotrichum oblongifolium.