Symphyotrichum lateriflorum(L.) Á.Löve & D.Löve

calico aster

WFO wfo-0000029031 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h

Symphyotrichum lateriflorum, photographed by Leila Dasher
fig. a Leila Dasher, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-12-17 / obs. 173722304
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum, photographed by Andrew Sebastian
fig. b Andrew Sebastian, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 164084663
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum, photographed by Nick Kleinschmidt
fig. c Nick Kleinschmidt, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 169653774
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum, photographed by Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas
fig. d Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 163876353
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum, photographed by Michael J. Papay
fig. e Michael J. Papay, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 163618745
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum, photographed by Cassidy Best
fig. f Cassidy Best, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 167836228
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum, photographed by Jamie VanBuskirk
fig. g Jamie VanBuskirk, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 166031664
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum, photographed by Jamie VanBuskirk
fig. h Jamie VanBuskirk, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 178494424

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Flowering n = 2,869 observations

Peak flowering in Sep, from 2,869 community-annotated observations worldwide. This is a global aggregate, not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres, and citizen-science records cluster near cities, at weekends, and in spring. Where a species has fewer than 30 annotated records we do not draw this chart at all.

Also published as 48 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Aglotoma multiflora Raf.
  • Anactis glabra Raf.
  • Aster acadiensis Shinners
  • Aster agrostifolius E.S.Burgess
  • Aster bifrons Lindl. ex DC.
  • Aster diffusus Aiton
  • Aster diffusus var. bifrons (Lindl. ex DC.) A.Gray
  • Aster diffusus var. diffusus
  • Aster diffusus var. horizontalis (Desf.) A.Gray
  • Aster diffusus var. variifolius Peck
  • Aster divergens Dryand. ex Aiton
  • Aster divergens var. diffusus (Aiton) Nutt.
  • Aster divergens var. humilior DC.
  • Aster glaber E.Mey. ex Nees
  • Aster hirsuticaulis Lindl. ex DC.
  • Aster horizontalis Desf.
  • Aster lateriflorus (L.) Britton
  • Aster lateriflorus var. angustifolius Wiegand
  • Aster lateriflorus var. bifrons (Lindl. ex DC.) Fernald
  • Aster lateriflorus var. flagellaris Shinners
  • Aster lateriflorus var. grandis Porter
  • Aster lateriflorus var. hirsuticaulis (Lindl. ex DC.) Porter
  • Aster lateriflorus var. horizontalis (Desf.) Farw.
  • Aster lateriflorus var. indutus Shinners

and 24 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice, no toxicity claim and no native range, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.