Symphyotrichum urophyllum(Lindl.) G.L.Nesom

white arrowleaf aster

WFO wfo-0000079456 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Symphyotrichum urophyllum, photographed by Eric Schmidt
fig. a Eric Schmidt, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-09-12 / obs. 163398100
Symphyotrichum urophyllum, photographed by aarongunnar
fig. b aarongunnar, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159915925
Symphyotrichum urophyllum, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. c Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 153602075
Symphyotrichum urophyllum, photographed by Andrew Sebastian
fig. d Andrew Sebastian, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 131144661
Symphyotrichum urophyllum, photographed by M. Squire
fig. e M. Squire, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 99533666
Symphyotrichum urophyllum, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. f Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 98005442
Symphyotrichum urophyllum, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. g Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 96358038
Symphyotrichum urophyllum, photographed by Reuven Martin
fig. h Reuven Martin, CC0 1.0 / obs. 87273557

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 31 botanical countries

Regions where Symphyotrichum urophyllum is native: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin AlabamaArkansasFloridaGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriNebraskaNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOntarioPennsylvaniaSouth CarolinaTennesseeVermontVirginiaWest VirginiaWisconsin
Native distribution of Symphyotrichum urophyllum, 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
Arkansas ARK
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Kentucky KTY
Maine MAI
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
Nebraska NEB
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
North Dakota NDA
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Vermont VER
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA
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 459 in flower of 481 examined

Peak flowering in Sep. Each bar is the share of Symphyotrichum urophyllum 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. 459 of 481 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 7 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 hirtellus Lindl. ex DC.
  • Aster hirtellus Lindl.
  • Aster sagittifolius var. dissitiflorus E.S.Burgess
  • Aster sagittifolius var. glomerellus Farw.
  • Aster sagittifolius var. urophyllus (Lindl. ex DC.) Burgess
  • Aster urophyllus Lindl. ex DC.
  • Aster urophyllus var. urophyllus

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.