Species
+

Symphyotrichum laeve (L.) Á.Löve & D.Löve

Glatte Herbstaster (DE), Glaucous Aster, Glaucous Michaelmas-daisy, Smooth Aster

Climate known 8 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Symphyotrichum laeve is a flowering plant native to Canada, the United States, and Coahuila (Mexico). It has the common names of smooth blue aster, smooth aster, smooth-leaved aster, glaucous Michaelmas-daisy and glaucous aster.

Text from Wikipedia, “Symphyotrichum laeve”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Symphyotrichum

Symphyotrichum is a genus of over 100 species and naturally occurring hybrids of herbaceous annual and perennial plants in the composite family, Asteraceae, most which were formerly treated within the genus Aster. The majority are endemic to North America, but several also occur in the West Indies, Central and South America, as well as one species in eastern Eurasia. Several species have been introduced to Europe as garden specimens, most notably New England aster and New York aster.

Text from Wikipedia, “Symphyotrichum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
(L.) Á.Löve & D.Löve
Native to
Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia +53
Wild records
1774 in range· 584 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Jul, mean day; nights 17 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
812mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 98 mm (CHELSA)
Light
9–41DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (April to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 812 mm a year, wettest June at 98 mm, driest January at 33 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -17.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Aster amplexicaulis Muhl.; Aster amplexicaulis Muhl. ex Willd.; Aster autranii Post; Aster bupleurifolius Nees; Aster cyaneus Hoffm. and 42 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (April to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (587 mm of 812 mm) falls in April to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 14.8 °C against a yearly mean of 7.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 812 mm a year, wettest June at 98 mm, driest January at 33 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

812 mm a year at the habitat, 587 mm of it April to October. Wettest month June at 98 mm, driest January at 33 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 443 mm to 1244 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

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

Light Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 6, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor -17.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -17.1 °C, the absolute minimum -29.4 °C, about 194 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -9.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells -17.3 °C to -3.9 °C), warmest day 26.3 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -17.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from -1 °C in Jan to 26 °C in Jul; mean night from -10 °C in Jan to 17 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 812 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1267 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -29.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-20°20°40°frost31.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)-29.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 9–41RH 55–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1267 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-1 / -9–41 / -6–76 / 1–1113 / 8–1719 / 14–2224 / 19–2726 / 23–3026 / 22–2921 / 17–2514 / 10–187 / -1–120 / -7–6
Night °C-10 / -17–-4-9 / -15–-3-4 / -9–12 / -2–68 / 3–1214 / 8–1817 / 11–2116 / 10–2012 / 6–166 / 0–10-1 / -8–4-8 / -15–-1
Rain mm33 / 15–9137 / 12–8450 / 19–10471 / 27–10986 / 48–11898 / 60–12592 / 57–12185 / 48–11585 / 38–11070 / 23–10661 / 17–10944 / 15–107
DLI12 / 8–1718 / 14–2226 / 24–3033 / 32–3738 / 37–4241 / 39–4540 / 38–4635 / 33–4127 / 24–3219 / 15–2412 / 8–189 / 6–15
RH %62 / 56–6960 / 55–6657 / 54–6255 / 52–5755 / 53–5957 / 53–6058 / 51–6058 / 52–6058 / 52–6057 / 53–6060 / 55–6362 / 56–68

Each figure is the median across the 1267 grid cells holding the 1638 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1083:1468 (35.825, -106.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -29.4 °C, 1st-percentile night -17.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1267 distinct grid cells holding the 1638 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1083:1468 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 36.00_-106.875, lapse-corrected +303 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2574 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeYukon, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Ontario, Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Northeast· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, France, Spain, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia, Ethiopia, Mauritius, Réunion, Turkey, Fiji, Gilbert Is., Niue, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, French Guiana, Guyana, Colombia
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker43.026, -89.436 · in the densest population, 468 records (26% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1774 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 584 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1024 km away. 96 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 136 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1774 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Symphyotrichum laeveSymphyotrichum laeveSymphyotrichum laeveSymphyotrichum laeveSymphyotrichum laeveSymphyotrichum laeveSymphyotrichum laeve

Photographs: Steve Wells, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Kalvin Chan, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Eric Lamb, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Sean Frey, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); mfeaver, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF.

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Symphyotrichum laeve, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

New records of interesting vascular plants (mainly xenophytes) in the Iberian Peninsula. I
Filip Verloove, Enrique Sánchez Gullón (2012) · Flora Mediterranea
1079. Symphyotrichum laeve (L.) Á. Löve & D. Löve: Compositae
D. J. N. Hind, Deborah Lambkin (2023) · Curtis s Botanical Magazine
Identification of plant species for pollinator restoration in the Northern Prairies
Diana Bizecki Robson, Cary Hamel, Rebekah Neufeld (2017) · Journal of Pollination Ecology
Ten-year persistence of native plant species on a green roof in Northeast US
Jessica D. Lubell, Bryan A. Connolly, Kristina N. Jones (2017) · Native Plants Journal
The vascular flora in three prairie cemeteries in Henry County, Indiana
Donald G. Ruch, Byron G. Torke, Kemuel S. Badger, Paul E. Rothrock (2014) · Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science
1077. Eurybia spectabilis (Aiton) G.L. Nesom: Compositae
D. J. N. Hind, Deborah Lambkin (2023) · Curtis s Botanical Magazine
Invasive earthworms modulate native plant trait expression and competition
Rike Schwarz, Nico Eisenhauer, Olga Ferlian, Fernando T. Maestre (2023) · Oikos
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2023) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2023) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Symphyotrichum 6 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 19 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 123 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.