Symphyotrichum ontarionis(Wiegand) G.L.Nesom

bottomland aster

WFO wfo-0000022142 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Symphyotrichum ontarionis, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. a Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-09-25 / obs. 159688204
Symphyotrichum ontarionis, photographed by Elizabeth
fig. b Elizabeth, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 99170807
Symphyotrichum ontarionis, photographed by Jeff D Hansen
fig. c Jeff D Hansen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 53147234
Symphyotrichum ontarionis, photographed by Shirley Zundell
fig. d Shirley Zundell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 23908668
Symphyotrichum ontarionis, photographed by aarongunnar
fig. e aarongunnar, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 10903793
Symphyotrichum ontarionis, photographed by Elizabeth
fig. f Elizabeth, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 94090551
Symphyotrichum ontarionis, photographed by davecz2
fig. g davecz2, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 10666714
Symphyotrichum ontarionis, photographed by aarongunnar
fig. h aarongunnar, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 10398732

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.

Native range 23 botanical countries

Regions where Symphyotrichum ontarionis is native: Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Québec, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Wisconsin AlabamaIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriNebraskaNew YorkNorth CarolinaOklahomaOntarioPennsylvaniaQuébecSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasVermontWisconsin
Native distribution of Symphyotrichum ontarionis, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Kentucky KTY
Louisiana LOU
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
Nebraska NEB
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
Oklahoma OKL
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Québec QUE
South Dakota SDA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Vermont VER
Wisconsin WIS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 86 in flower of 94 examined

Peak flowering in Aug. Each bar is the share of Symphyotrichum ontarionis observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 86 of 94 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 9 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 13 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.

  • Aster diffusus var. thyrsoideus A.Gray
  • Aster lateriflorus var. thyrsoideus E.Sheld.
  • Aster missouriensis Britton
  • Aster missouriensis var. missouriensis
  • Aster missouriensis var. thyrsoideus (A.Gray) Wiegand
  • Aster missouriensis var. thyrsoideus Wiegand
  • Aster ontariensis Wiegand
  • Aster ontarionis Wiegand
  • Aster ontarionis var. ontarionis
  • Aster pantotrichus S.F.Blake
  • Aster pantotrichus var. pantotrichus
  • Aster pantotrichus var. thyrsoideus S.F.Blake
  • Aster tradescantii var. thyrsoideus (A.Gray) B.Boivin

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.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

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