Are Aster Flowers Edible?

The Aster genus of flowering plants is one of many in the large Asteraceae family that includes chrysanthemums and daisies.

The blooms have a composite structure made up of a central disk of florets surrounded by petal-like rays.

Many of the plants we commonly call asters belong to other botanical genera, including Doellingeria, Eurybia, Ionactis, and Symphyotrichum.

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The variation is due to a 1990s taxonomic reclassification that whittled 600 species of plants down to 180 “true” Asian and European Aster species, recategorized the North American ones, and did nothing to change any of their well-established common names.

When we speak of asters, we refer primarily to perennials, but there is also an annual species, the China aster, Callistephus chinensis.

Typically, they are mid- to late-summer flowering plants, but there are exceptions, like the spring-blooming Alpine species, A. alpinus.

Most prefer slightly acidic soil, but some, like the Italian A. amellus, thrive in alkaline conditions.

As you are becoming aware, the aster array is vast and varied. Our guide to growing asters has all you need to know to cultivate your own plants.

In this article, we take a comprehensive approach to answering the question of whether or not asters are edible.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

Let’s begin.

Written references to asters date back to ancient Greece and Rome. By the 1200s, they were not uncommon in the physic (medicinal) gardens of monks and nobility.

In 1902, the Torrey Botanical Society published Studies in the History and Variations of Asters: Part I History of Pre-Clusian Botany in