bog aster

Oclemena nemoralis is a perennial, herbaceous plant that propagates via a swollen tuber at the tip of a slender, elongated rhizome. It stands 5–70 cm (2–28 in) tall with 30–100 leaves uniformly distributed along the stem, each leaf 1–8 mm wide. The leaf margins are entire (or nearly so) and revolute. It can have as many as 15 flower heads (nodding in bud) but it usually has a single flower head borne on a thread-like peduncle 3–7 cm (1.2–2.8 in) long. A flower head has 13–25 ray flowers, pink to purple (seldom white), and 20–35 disc flowers. Oclemena nemoralis is closely related to Oclemena acuminata. Hybrid populations can occur wherever the parent species come in contact, that is, at the forest-bog ecotone. The hybrid is known as Blake's aster.

Oclemena nemoralis is native to eastern Canada and northeastern United States:

Canada: New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec United States: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont Other: Saint Pierre and Miquelon Throughout most of its range, Oclemena nemoralis has adapted to acidic sphagnum bogs but in the eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan, it prefers fen habitat.