flat-top white aster
Doellingeria umbellata
Its flat-topped flower clusters (corymbs) act as perfect landing pads for heavy-bodied pollinators like bumblebees.
- Scientific name
- Doellingeria umbellata
- Taxonomy
- Plantae › Tracheophyta › Magnoliopsida › Asterales › Asteraceae › Doellingeria
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- stable
- Biome
- wetland
- Habitat
- Wet meadows, swamps, fens, and damp open woodlands.
- Diet
- Autotrophic (photosynthetic)
- Range
- Eastern North America, Northeastern United States, Southeastern Canada
- Size
- Up to 2 meters (6.5 feet) in height
- Lifespan
- Perennial (individual root systems can live for many years)
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Wetland drainage, development, and encroachment by invasive plant species.
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless. This plant is safe to approach and touch. It has no stinging hairs or toxic sap, making it a wonderful subject for nature photography. Do not consume wild plants.
Doellingeria umbellata , known by the common names tall flat-topped white aster , parasol whitetop , or tall white-aster , is a North American plant species in the aster family. It is native to Canada (from Alberta to Newfoundland), St. Pierre and Miquelon, and the eastern and north-central United States (from Nebraska and the Dakotas east to Maine and South to Mississippi, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle.
Photo: Michael J. Papay, CC-BY, via iNaturalist
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