Smooth Aster

Symphyotrichum laeve

KeystoneHosts 2 caterpillarsBird foodPollinator plant

Growing it

When	Flowers August to October
Type	wildflower
Sun	Full sun, partial shade
Water	Low, medium
Soil	pH 5.5–7.5
Hardiness	zone 3–8
Mature height	1 m
Mature spread	0.45 m
Spacing	0.3 m
Years to maturity	2
Bloom	Aug–Oct
Flower colour	Blue read from a published flora
In bloom	August September October
Native to	AB, SK

lance-shaped leaves about 8 cm long

Where it has been recorded

BothSpecimensObservations

354 squares of about 28 km, each holding at least one record. A square is not a claim that the plant grows throughout it, and an unshaded square is unrecorded rather than empty. Darker squares hold more records, which follows roads and towns as much as it follows the plant. 140 herbarium specimens and 1,105 field observations this project may redraw. A filled dot is a pressed sheet somebody can re-examine; a hollow ring is a photograph identified by community agreement. Where the dots are dense is where people have looked, not where the plant is commonest, and empty ground is unsurveyed rather than unoccupied. How this map is made.

Which ecoregions the records fall in

Aspen Parkland central AB / SK: 768 records, high confidence
Fescue Grassland south AB: 480 records, high confidence
Moist Mixed Grassland south AB / SK: 441 records, high confidence
Northern Continental Divide south AB: 238 records, high confidence
Boreal Transition central AB / SK: 113 records, high confidence
Western Alberta Upland central AB: 87 records, high confidence
Cypress Upland south AB / SK: 76 records, high confidence
Mixed Grassland south AB / SK: 60 records, high confidence
Peace Lowland north AB: 33 records, high confidence
Mid-Boreal Uplands central AB / SK: 26 records, high confidence
Eastern Continental Ranges central AB: 15 records, medium confidence
Slave River Lowland north AB: 7 records, low confidence
Wabasca Lowland north AB: 5 records, low confidence

These are counts of records collected somewhere in the region, which is the resolution of the evidence: the map above shows where inside it. A region with 3 records is not the same claim as one with three hundred, so the count travels with the region. A region missing from this list means nobody has recorded it there, which is not the same as the plant being absent. Records within 900 m of a border count for neither side, because the border is not drawn finely enough to say which one they are on. Source: GBIF occurrence search + PRESERVED_SPECIMEN pass, retrieved 2026-08-24. Boundaries digitised from the National Ecological Framework for Canada v2.2 (Ecological Stratification Working Group 1995), simplified to about 900 m for display: an outline is accurate to roughly a kilometre, not to the metre. How these counts are made.

See every observation, live and current, on GBIF or iNaturalist.

Documented animals

85 documented relationships.

nectar for

Agapostemon splendens Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Agrotis venerabilis Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
American Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
American Lady Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Ancistrocerus adiabatus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Andrena hirticincta Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Aphrodite Fritillary Acorn & Sheldon 2006
Arcigera Flower Moth Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Argynnis mormonia Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Augochlorella aurata Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Bald-faced Hornet Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Bicoloured Sweat Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Black-shouldered Drone Fly Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Brown-belted Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
Brown-tailed Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
Bumblebees Wilson & Carril 2015
Calligrapher Fly Acorn
Canadian Tiger Swallowtail Acorn & Sheldon 2006
Celery Looper Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Central Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
Ceratina calcarata Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Clouded Sulphur Acorn & Sheldon 2006
Coelioxys porterae LaManna et al. 2020
Common Branded Skipper Acorn & Sheldon 2006
Common Ringlet Acorn & Sheldon 2006
Common Wood-Nymph Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Confusing Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Dianthidium subparvum LaManna et al. 2020
Drone Fly Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Eastern Calligrapher Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Eastern Tailed-Blue Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Epicauta ferruginea Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Epistrophe grossulariae Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Eristalis stipator Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Eupeodes americanus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Golden Northern Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
Goldenrod Soldier Beetle Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Gray Hairstreak Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Half-black Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
Halictus ligatus LaManna et al. 2020
Helophilus fasciatus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Heriades cressoni LaManna et al. 2020
Hoplitis producta LaManna et al. 2020
Hunt's Bumble Bee Packer
Indiscriminate Cuckoo Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
Megachile centuncularis Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Megachile fidelis LaManna et al. 2020
Megachile latimanus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Megachile perihirta LaManna et al. 2020
Melanoplus bivittatus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Melissodes bimaculatus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Melissodes druriellus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Melissodes microstictus LaManna et al. 2020
Milbert's Tortoiseshell Acorn & Sheldon 2006
Monarch Acorn & Sheldon 2006
Mormon Fritillary Acorn & Sheldon 2006
Northern Crescent Acorn & Sheldon 2006
Northern Paper Wasp Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Orange Sulphur Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Painted Lady Acorn & Sheldon 2006
Pearl Crescent Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Peck's Skipper Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Physocephala tibialis Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Police Car Moth Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Red Admiral Acorn & Sheldon 2006
Red-belted Bumble Bee LaManna et al. 2020
Silver-spotted Skipper Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Spotted Cucumber Beetle Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Syrphus opinator Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Syrphus rectus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Tricoloured Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Two-ranked Bumble Bee LaManna et al. 2020
Variegated Fritillary Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Vespula germanica Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Vespula maculifrons Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Western Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Woodland Skipper Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Yellow-collared Scape Moth Specimen records from iNaturalist.org

pollen for

A Leafcutter Bee Packer
Leafcutter Bees Wilson & Carril 2015
Small Sweat Bees Packer
Sweat Bees Wilson & Carril 2015

caterpillar host for

Isabella Tiger Moth Pohl et al. 2018
Northern Crescent Acorn & Sheldon 2006

seed for

American Goldfinch Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Also worth knowing

Safety

Toxicity not assessed, absence of a warning is not a guarantee of safety

Buying it

About $8–$16 per plant (estimate), usually stocked by garden centres. Estimate (herb default); AB retail as of 2026

Where these numbers came from

Flower detail: not verified, a genus-level estimate