Appearance
"Aster amellus" reaches on average a height of 20–50 centimetres. 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 or pollinated by insects. The seeds are an achene that ripens in October.
Naming
The genus name comes from the Greek and means "star-shaped flower." The specific name is first used in the Georgics, a poem of the Latin poet Publius Vergilius Maro, but the etymology is obscure and uncertain.Distribution
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, the Caucasus, Siberia and Central Asia.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 0–800 metres above sea level.References:
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