Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Eurybia macrophylla; photograph (c) Logan, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Logan, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-05

Eurybia macrophylla (L.) Cass.

Large-leaved aster; Large-leaved wood aster; Bigleaf aster; Big-leaved aster

Asteraceae · Manitoba, New Brunswick +31

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Eurybia macrophylla, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedEurybia macrophylla, photograph (c) Dan Riley, some rights reserved (CC BY)Eurybia macrophylla, photograph (c) Dan Riley, some rights reserved (CC BY)Eurybia macrophylla, photograph (c) Dan Riley, some rights reserved (CC BY)Eurybia macrophylla, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedEurybia macrophylla, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 67 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-25.9°C
Record low -35.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
25°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
961mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
8–39DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Eurybia macrophylla, commonly known as the bigleaf aster, large-leaved aster, largeleaf aster or bigleaf wood aster, is an herbaceous perennial in the family Asteraceae that was formerly treated in the genus Aster. It is native to eastern North America, with a range extending from eastern and central Canada (from Nova Scotia to Manitoba) through the northeastern deciduous and mixed forests of New England and the Great Lakes region and south along the Appalachians as far as the northeastern corner of Georgia, and west as far as Minnesota, Missouri and Arkansas. The flowers appear in the late summer to early fall and show ray florets that are usually either a deep lavender or violet, but sometimes white, and disc florets that are cream-coloured or light yellow, becoming purple as they mature. It is one of the parent species of the hybrid Eurybia × herveyi.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Eurybia macrophylla", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (729 mm of 988 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 29.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

Rain

988 mm in the median year at the habitat, 729 mm of it May to December. Wettest month June at 101 mm, driest month February at 58 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 781 mm to 1,304 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 961 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 988 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 8 to 39 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 7, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -25.9 °C, the absolute minimum -35.2 °C, 7,347 frost nights in 44 years, 167.0 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 26.4 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -12.8 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -16.8 °C to -6.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 24.8 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -25.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -130 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Eurybia macrophylla through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 25 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -12.8 °C; 988 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-40°-20°0°20°40°frost26.4° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-35.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 8–39RH 56–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 1322 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-5 / -9–1-3 / -7–33 / -1–811 / 6–1417 / 12–2022 / 18–2525 / 22–2724 / 22–2620 / 17–2212 / 10–165 / 2–10-1 / -5–3
Night °C-13 / -17–-7-12 / -14–-6-6 / -9–-21 / -2–47 / 5–1013 / 11–1516 / 15–1916 / 14–1912 / 10–156 / 4–9-1 / -4–3-8 / -13–-3
Rain mm66 / 24–9858 / 23–8861 / 37–10674 / 58–11189 / 75–113101 / 81–12398 / 79–12392 / 80–116100 / 86–11690 / 71–11984 / 47–11875 / 30–115
DLI11 / 10–1317 / 16–1925 / 24–2732 / 31–3437 / 35–3939 / 37–4239 / 37–4133 / 32–3525 / 23–2716 / 15–2010 / 9–138 / 7–10
RH %64 / 59–6762 / 58–6558 / 56–6156 / 54–5957 / 55–5958 / 57–6159 / 58–6160 / 59–6260 / 59–6260 / 58–6261 / 59–6464 / 59–68
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 1322 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1679 records in those cells; 2 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 860:1906 (46.975, -84.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -35.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -25.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 26.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1322 distinct grid cells holding 1679 of the 1681 in-range records (2 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 860:1906 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 47.00_-84.375, lapse-corrected -130 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 216 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeManitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia · introduced: Great Britain, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, Poland · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker44.861, -79.703 · in the densest population, 895 records (47% of those in range)
Kew's description“temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1891 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1679 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1681 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 604 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 337 km away. 21 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 210 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 7759486 (Eurybia macrophylla (L.) Cass. ex Nees): Kew's file holds it as Eurybia macrophylla (L.) Cass. (accepted); 1 record, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1891 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Eurybia macrophylla, photograph 1did not loadEurybia macrophylla, photograph 2did not loadEurybia macrophylla, photograph 3did not loadEurybia macrophylla, photograph 4did not loadEurybia macrophylla, photograph 5did not loadEurybia macrophylla, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Dan Riley, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Pinus resinosa Pinus resinosa Norway pine Photo: CC BY, Nick KleinschmidtSpiranthes casei Spiranthes casei Case's ladies'-tresses Photo: CC BY, Dan RileyFraxinus nigra Fraxinus nigra Black ash Photo: CC BY, Andrew SebastianCapnoides sempervirens Capnoides sempervirens Rock harlequin Photo: CC0, author not statedCarex arctata Carex arctata Drooping woodland sedge Photo: CC0, author not statedSolidago uliginosa Solidago uliginosa Bog goldenrod Photo: CC BY, kursic

Other Eurybia 12 in the reference

Eurybia conspicua Eurybia conspicua Showy aster Photo: CC BY, scottj800Eurybia divaricata Eurybia divaricata White wood aster Photo: CC BY-SA, Douglas GoldmanEurybia furcata Eurybia furcata Forked aster Photo: CC BY, Brandon CorderEurybia glauca Eurybia glauca Gray Aster Photo: CC0, author not statedEurybia hemispherica Eurybia hemispherica Showy aster Photo: CC BY, jmphelps Eurybia × herveyi Asteraceae Eurybia radula Eurybia radula Low rough aster Photo: CC BY, Scott WardEurybia radulina Eurybia radulina Rough-leaved aster Photo: CC0, author not statedEurybia saxicastellii Eurybia saxicastellii Rockcastle aster Photo: CC BY, Evan M. RaskinEurybia schreberi Eurybia schreberi Nettle-leaved Michaelmas-daisy Photo: CC BY, Ryan SorrellsEurybia sibirica Eurybia sibirica Siberian aster Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerEurybia spectabilis Eurybia spectabilis Low showy aster Photo: CC BY, Sean Rigney

Names & registers

Also known as Aster ambiguus; Aster excelsior; Aster ianthinus; Aster jussiei; Aster latifolius and 31 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
(L.) Cass.
Native to
Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia +30
Wild records
1891 in range · 604 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 1 record of GBIF's key 7759486, Eurybia macrophylla (L.) Cass. ex Nees (Kew's file holds it as Eurybia macrophylla (L.) Cass. (accepted)): GBIF occurrence search API; 29 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (20 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 5 at a herbarium, 4 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 47.00_-84.375, lapse-corrected -130 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 52 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…