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Asteraceae family

Southeastern Annual Saltmarsh Aster Symphyotrichum squamatum

Native Specialist-bee host

Southeastern Annual Saltmarsh Aster is an annual wildflower native to the lower 48 states. It grows to 4 ft. A host for pollen-specialist native bees.

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
Hardiness
≥ zone 9 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0) — Height
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Height
4 ft
Lifespan
Annual
In the garden
Shrub layer — Sits in the shrub of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
Rain garden / bioswale — Rated OBL on the wetland list — tolerates wet feet, so it suits the soggy zone of a rain garden or bioswale that catches and filters runoff.Open guide →
derived roles
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
✦ Bees specialist-bee host · 92 bee visitors

Specialist native bees depend on it.

Some native bees are pollen specialists (oligolectic) — they raise young only on pollen from particular plant genera. Symphyotrichum is a recorded specialist-bee host, so losing it can mean losing the bee that relies on it.

Xerces pollinator conservation →

92 native & managed bee species are documented visiting Southeastern Annual Saltmarsh Aster — the 12 most-recorded:

Hylaeus kotschisus · masked bee Andrena denticulata · mining bee Andrena hesperia · mining bee Andrena humilis · mining bee Andrena livens · mining bee Andrena nigroolivacea · mining bee
+ 6 more bees →
Andrena pellucens · mining bee Andrena polita · mining bee Andrena rhenana · mining bee Andrena taraxaci · mining bee Bombus terrestris · Buff-Tailed Bumblebee Colletes daviesanus · cellophane bee
Specialist hosts from Smith et al. 2024. Visitor records (observations, not exhaustive) from Noori et al. 2026 (CC BY 4.0) · GloBI →
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
Sources for this entry (13) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — native status
[06] Wetland indicator — USACE National Wetland Plant List (2022)
[08] Ecological value — GloBI · Smith et al. 2024 (CC BY)
[10] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[12] Flower-visitor value (derived) — Noori et al. 2026 (CC BY 4.0) · GloBI
[13] County range — GBIF Open Data — open-licensed occurrences (CC0/CC-BY) → county
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