Aster ageratoides

Aster ageratoides is a rhizomatous perennial herb of the family Asteraceae, widely distributed across temperate to subtropical East Asia, including China, Korea, Japan, the eastern Himalayas and Indochina, where it occurs in forest margins, grassy slopes, roadsides and open ground from lowlands to montane elevations. The plant typically grows 40–100 cm tall, with erect to ascending, slender, simple or branched stems arising from a creeping rhizome and clothed in short pubescence. The basal leaves wither at flowering; the cauline leaves are alternate, ovate-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 5–15 cm long and 2–5 cm wide, with three prominent veins, serrate margins, a short petiole on the lower leaves and sessile on the upper, and short rough hairs on both surfaces. The inflorescence is a loose, flat-topped to corymb-like cluster of several to many heads; each head is 1.5–2.5 cm across, with 10–20 narrow ray florets that are white, pale lilac or pinkish, and a yellow disc of tubular florets. The fruit is a small flattened achene with a whitish to slightly tawny pappus of capillary bristles. It is a variable species with many recognised varieties.