Aster amellus

The specific name amellus is first used in the Georgics (Book IV, 271–280), a poem of the Latin poet Publius Vergilius Maro (70 BCE – 19 BCE), but the etymology is obscure and uncertain.

The English common name derives from the flowers being in bloom during Michaelmas (the Feast of St. Michael the archangel).{{cite web|url=https://www.monrovia.com/farmington-michaelmas-daisy.html|title=Michaelmas Daisy|publisher=monrovia.com |date= |accessdate=2020-12-30}}

Aster amellus reaches on average a height of {{convert|20|-|50|cm}}. The stem is erect and branched, the leaves are dark green. The basal leaves are obovate and petiolated, the cauline ones are alternate and sessile, increasingly narrower and lanceolate. The flowers are lilac. The flowering period extends from July through October. The hermaphroditic flowers are either self-fertilized (autogamy) or pollinated by insects (entomogamy). The seeds are an achene that ripens in October.

This plant is present on the European mountains from the Pyrenees and the Alps to the Carpathians. Outside Europe it is located in western Asia (Turkey), the Caucasus, Siberia, South Asia (Uttarakhand, India) and Central Asia (Kazakhstan).

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's Award of Garden Merit:-

• 'Framfieldii'{{cite web|url=https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/52849/Aster-amellus-Framfieldii/Details |title=RHS Plant Selector Aster amellus 'Framfieldii' AGM / RHS Gardening |publisher=Apps.rhs.org.uk |date= |accessdate=2020-04-15}}
• 'Jacqueline Genebrier'{{cite web|url=https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/64760/Aster-amellus-Jacqueline-Genebrier/Details |title=RHS Plant Selector Aster amellus 'Jacqueline Genebrier' AGM / RHS Gardening |publisher=Apps.rhs.org.uk |date= |accessdate=2020-04-15}}
• 'King George'{{cite web|url=https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/93599/Aster-amellus-King-George/Details |title=RHS Plant Selector Aster amellus 'King George' AGM / RHS Gardening |publisher=Apps.rhs.org.uk |date= |accessdate=2020-04-15}}
• 'Veilchenkönigin'{{cite web|url=https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/27881/Aster-amellus-Veilchenkonigin/Details |title=RHS Plant Selector Aster amellus 'Veilchenkönigin' AGM / RHS Gardening |publisher=Apps.rhs.org.uk |date= |accessdate=2020-04-15}}
• Aster × frikartii 'Mönch'{{cite web | url = https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/93410/Aster-x-frikartii-Monch/Details

| title = Aster × frikartii 'Mönch' | publisher = RHS | accessdate = 12 April 2020}}

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 {{convert|0|-|800|m}} above sea level.

{{ws|The Michaelmas Daisy}} was one of Letitia Elizabeth Landon's earliest published poems (1820).

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

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Aster+amellus Plants for a Future]
• Pignatti S. - Flora d'Italia (3 vol.) - Edagricole – 1982, Vol. III, pag. 20

• {{Commons category-inline|Aster amellus}}
• {{GRIN}}
• [https://archive.today/20130210082005/http://zipcodezoo.com/Plants/A/Aster_amellus/ Zipcodezoo Database]

{{Taxonbar|from=Q819178}}

amellus

Category:Flora of Europe

Category:Flora of the Pyrenees

Category:Flora of the Alps

Category:Flora of Azerbaijan

Category:Flora of Central Asia

Category:Flora of Siberia

Category:Plants described in 1753

Category:Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus