''Aster amellus'', the European Michaelmas daisy, is a

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wid ...

herbaceous plant in the genus '' Aster'' of the family

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

Etymology

The specific name ''amellus'' is first used in the

Georgics The ''Georgics'' ( ; ) is a poem by Latin poet Virgil, likely published in 29 BCE. As the name suggests (from the Greek word , ''geōrgika'', i.e. "agricultural (things)") the subject of the poem is agriculture; but far from being an example ...

(Book IV, 271–280), a poem of the Latin poet

Publius Vergilius Maro Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...

(70 BCE – 19 BCE), but the etymology is obscure and uncertain. The English common name derives from the flowers being in bloom during

Michaelmas Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in some Western liturgical calendars on 29 September, ...

(the Feast of St. Michael the archangel).

Description

''Aster amellus'' reaches on average a height of . The stem is erect and branched, the leaves are dark green. The basal leaves are obovate and petiolated, the

cauline A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, ste ...

ones are alternate and

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

, increasingly narrower and lanceolate. The flowers are lilac. The flowering period extends from July through October. The

hermaphroditic In reproductive biology, a hermaphrodite () is an organism that has both kinds of reproductive organs and can produce both gametes associated with male and female sexes. Many taxonomic groups of animals (mostly invertebrates) do not have s ...

flowers are either self-fertilized (

autogamy Autogamy, or self-fertilization, refers to the fusion of two gametes that come from one individual. Autogamy is predominantly observed in the form of self-pollination, a reproductive mechanism employed by many flowering plants. However, species o ...

) or pollinated by insects ( entomogamy). The seeds are an achene that ripens in October.

Distribution

This plant is present on the European mountains from the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

and the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Swi ...

to the

Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...

. Outside Europe it is located in western Asia (

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

), the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...

, South Asia (

Uttarakhand, India Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...

) and Central Asia (

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

Cultivation

Asters are valued in the garden for late summer and autumn colour in shades of blue, pink and white. This species has several cultivars of ornamental garden use. The following have gained the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nor ...

's Award of Garden Merit:- *'Framfieldii' *'Jacqueline Genebrier' *'King George' *'Veilchenkönigin' *'' Aster × frikartii'' 'Mönch'

Habitat

The typical habitat is rocky limy areas, the edges of the bushes and copses, but also the sub-alpine meadows, marshy places and lake sides. It prefers calcareous and slightly dry substrate with basic pH and low nutritional value, at an altitude of above sea level.

Synonyms

In literature

was one of

Letitia Elizabeth Landon Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L. The writings of Landon are transitional between Romanticism and the Victorian Age. Her first major breakthrough ...

's earliest published poems (1820).

Gallery

File:Illustration Aster amellus0.jpg, Illustration from "Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz", 1885 File:Aster amellus - plants (aka).jpg, File:Asteraceae - Aster amellus.JPG, Flowers File:Berg-Aster, Blüten.jpg File:Aster amellus 003.JPG, Fruits

References

Plants for a Future
* Pignatti S. - Flora d'Italia (3 vol.) - Edagricole – 1982, Vol. III, pag. 20

External links

* *
Zipcodezoo Database
{{Taxonbar, from=Q819178

amellus ''Amellus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae described as a genus by Linnaeus in 1759. ''Amellus'' is native to southern Africa (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( ...

Flora of Europe Flora of the Pyrenees Flora of the Alps Flora of Azerbaijan Flora of Central Asia Flora of Siberia Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus