Symphyotrichum chilense

California aster

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

California aster is a California native perennial found in western and central coastal regions, northern Southern California, and northern Channel Islands in grasslands, salt marshes, and disturbed areas at elevations below 500 meters. Flowering from June to October, this plant produces violet ray flowers 8 to 12 millimeters long in heads arranged in cyme-like clusters. Growing with hairy stems 40 to 100 centimeters tall, it spreads through long rhizomes that create dense clumps. Its leaves are nearly sessile, oblanceolate in shape, ranging from entire to finely serrate, with a slightly hairy surface and tapering to an acute tip. The plant's distinctive phyllaries feature green outer bracts and inner bracts with pale margins and a green oblanceolate to linear center zone.

Habitat: Grassland, salt marshes, disturbed places

Bloom period: Jun-Oct

Elevation: < 500 m

Bioregions: w&ampc NW, w&ampc CW, n SCo, n ChI

California counties: Butte, San Mateo, Del Norte, Monterey, Kern, San Francisco, Mendocino, Santa Clara, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Humboldt, Santa Cruz, Marin, San Luis Obispo, Alameda, Sonoma, Contra Costa, Colusa, Nevada, El Dorado, Lake, Solano, Los Angeles, Napa, San Bernardino, Plumas, San Diego, Tuolumne, Calaveras, Madera, Mariposa, Siskiyou, Tulare, Yuba, Shasta, Yolo, Sacramento, San Joaquin

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.