

Forked Aster Eurybia furcata
Forked Aster is a perennial wildflower native to the lower 48 states. A host for pollen-specialist native bees.
More about this plant
Eurybia furcata, commonly called forked aster, is an herbaceous perennial in the family Asteraceae. It is native primarily to the Great Lakes region and the Ozark Mountains in the United States. It is uncommon throughout its range, and occurs in the states of Michigan and Wisconsin in the north, south through Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana, and into Missouri and Arkansas. The species is intolerant of shade and is typically found on rocky, north-facing slopes, especially those composed of limestone, dolomite, or sandstone. It can also be found in seeps on bluffs, in moist woods along streams, and occasionally in disturbed sites. It is included in the Center for Plant Conservation's National Collection of Endangered Plants. Wikipedia →
Growing & care
USDA PLANTS · TRY- Hardiness
- ≥ zone 6 derived from its U.S. range
- Lifespan
- Perennial
Wildlife & pollinators
How pollinator value is scored →✦ Bees specialist-bee host
Specialist native bees depend on it.
Some native bees are pollen specialists (oligolectic) — they raise young only on pollen from particular plant genera. Eurybia is a recorded specialist-bee host, so losing it can mean losing the bee that relies on it.
How we know this (1) Methods & honest limits
We take the plant’s U.S. county range and look up each county’s long-term climate, then summarise: native rainfall = the median annual rainfall across its counties; heat tolerance = the warm end (90th percentile) of average temperature across its range (mirroring how our cold-hardiness floor uses an extreme). Counties + medians blunt the roadside/observer bias that makes point-level climate unreliable. Needs at least five placeable counties.
Honest limits: A realized, sampling-biased niche (where it has been recorded, not its physiological optimum), and county climate is coarse — large Western counties span deserts and mountains. Derived guide, never a measured fact.
Sources for this entry (12) Open & cited
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