Bushy Aster

Symphyotrichum dumosum is a perennial, herbaceous plant that grows up to 1 meter (3 feet 3 inches) high.

Flowers. Symphyotrichum dumosum is a late-summer and fall blooming perennial, with flower heads opening August–October. The flower heads are about 13 millimeters (1⁄2 inch) diameter when in bloom and grow in open and much-branched paniculiform arrays. Each has many tiny florets put together into what appear as one.

Involucres and phyllaries. On the outside the flower heads of all members of the family Asteraceae are small bracts that look like scales. These are called phyllaries, and together they form the involucre that protects the individual flowers in the head before they open. The involucres of Symphyotrichum dumosum are cylinder-bell in shape and usually 4.5–6.3 mm (1⁄5–1⁄4 in) long. The phyllaries are appressed or slightly spreading. The shape of the outer phyllaries is oblong-oblanceolate or linear-oblanceolate, and the innermost phyllaries are linear. They are in 4–6 strongly unequal rows, meaning they are very staggered and do not end at the same point, and they are hairless.

Florets. The 15–33 ray florets are blue, pink, purple, or white, with a length averaging 5–7 mm (1⁄5–3⁄10 in) and width of 1–1.7 mm (1⁄24–1⁄16 in). …

Symphyotrichum dumosum has a recorded native presence in the wild in the Canadian province of Ontario, and in the United States in all states east of the Mississippi River except Vermont, as well as west of the Mississippi River in Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana. It is also native on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. It is an introduced species in New Brunswick, and in the countries of Belgium, France, Great Britain, Poland, Romania, and Switzerland. It is not on the European Union's List of invasive alien species of Union concern.

Symphyotrichum dumosum is insect pollinated and is recorded to have been visited in northern Florida by Augochloropsis metallica and Melissodes boltoniae.