Common Name: golden aster
Type: Herbaceous perennial
Family: Asteraceae
Native Range: Southeastern United States
Zone: 4 to 9
Height: 1.00 to 2.50 feet
Spread: 1.00 to 2.00 feet
Bloom Time: August to October
Bloom Description: Yellow
Sun: Full sun to part shade
Water: Dry to medium
Maintenance: Medium
Suggested Use: Naturalize
Flower: Showy
Attracts: Butterflies
Tolerate: Drought
Culture
Best grown in sandy, medium moisture, well-drained soils in full sun. Tolerates light shade. Established plants have some drought tolerance. May reseed in the garden in optimum conditions. Reseeding helps retain this short-lived perennial in the garden.
Noteworthy Characteristics
Chrysopsis mariana, commonly called Maryland goldenaster, is an upright, fibrous-rooted, short-stoloniferous perennial that typically grows on stout, silky/woolly stems to 1-2.5’ tall. Silky stems give rise to the additional common name of silk grass for this plant. It is native to open fields, open woods, natural rock outcroppings, barrens, scrub, grasslands, roadsides and disturbed areas, usually in sandy soils, from southern New York and Ohio south to Texas and Florida.
From a low rosette of basal leaves rise flowering stems from August to October crowned with clusters of yellow daisy-like flowers. Each flower (1” diameter) has bright yellow rays (13-21 per flower) surrounding a center disk of tiny yellow florets, each flower being subtended by lanceolate, appressed, glandular, sticky flower bracts. Petiolate, woolly-haired, oblanceolate to elliptic, basal leaves (each to 2-6” long and to 1 3/8” wide) have entire or dentate margins. Sessile stem leaves are smaller and entire. Fruits are reddish-brown achenes.
Synonymous with Heterotheca mariana.
Genus name comes from the Greek words chrysos meaning gold and opsis meaning appearance in reference to the golden flowers.
Specific epithet means of Maryland in reference to the native territory of this plant which in part includes the State of Maryland.
Common name is in reference to golden flowers on a plant from Maryland.
Problems
No serious insect or disease problems. Some susceptibility to mildew.
Uses
Yellow flowers for fall. Rock gardens, xeriscaping, borders, meadows. Wild gardens.