Scientific Name

Corethrogyne filaginifolia

Full Sun

Part Sun

Low

Max. Height × Width

3 × 5 feet

More information

calscape.org

Price & Availability


Currently not available.

One of LA’s bad-ass, “survivor species,” California Aster manages to thrive even in the city’s most bombed-out hellscapes, so imagine how well it’s going to do in your garden. It’s also among the elite set of late-summer/early fall bloomers, putting out its cheerful, diminutive purple flowers at a time of year when pollinators need all the help they can get. Tough as nails, California Aster can take your most punishing southwestern exposures and once established, will not ask for a drop of supplemental water, ever. In fact, the only suggested maintenance for California Aster is an annual hard pruning (to about 6-inch stubs) after it’s finished flowering in the fall. It will, almost overnight, start to leaf out again, looking quite lush in just a few weeks, especially once the hoped-for “rainy season” gets underway. But there’s a catch: good luck finding this local powerhouse at a native plant nursery.

That is, unless you want a cultivar. Here at LANPS, we propagate the wild, straight species of California Aster from open-pollinated seed, not some fancy-pants clone with an unintentionally campy drag name like “Moss Landing” or “Silver Carpet.” Our California Aster, proudly un-pedigreed, was originally propagated from seed we found on a plant growing in an empty, hillside lot on Figueroa in Highland Park. It’s as “LA Native” as it gets.

Plant California Aster in full to part sun, at the edge of an oak canopy or on a slope among larger coastal sage scrub species like Eriogonum, Salvia and Artemesia, where it can interweave its spindly flower stalks among their sturdier scaffolding. It will likewise appreciate rocky, sandy soil with excellent drainage. Our well-rooted plants come in extra-deep 3″ pots, best planted with an auger.

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Bitter Gooseberry

Ribes amarum

flowers

Blue Dicks

Dipterostemon (Dichelostemma) capitatus

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Blue Elderberry

Sambucus nigra ssp. caerulea

Blue Wildrye

Elymus glaucus

Branching Phacelia

Phacelia ramosissima

Brickell Bush

Brickellia californica

California Aster

Corethrogyne filaginifolia

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California Four O’Clock

Mirabilis laevis var. crassifolia

California Fuchsia

Epilobium canum ssp. canum

California Prickly Phlox

Linanthus californicus

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Canyon Dudleya

Dudleya cymosa

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Cardinal Catchfly

Silene laciniata

Caterpillar Phacelia

Phacelia cicutaria

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Coast Live Oak

Quercus agrifolia

Coast Prickly Pear

Opuntia littoralis

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Coffeeberry

Frangula californica

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Fiesta Flower

Pholistoma auritum

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Fuchsiaflower Gooseberry

Ribes speciosum

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Hollyleaf Redberry

Rhamnus ilicifolia

Longstem Buckwheat

Eriogonum elongatum

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Mountain Mahogany

Cercocarpus betuloides

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Poison Oak

Toxicodendron diversilobum

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Punch Bowl Godetia

Clarkia bottae

Rooreh

Claytonia perfoliata

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Round Leafed Boykinia

Boykinia rotundifolia

Sacred Datura

Datura wrightii

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Santa Barbara Honeysuckle

Lonicera subspicata var. denudata

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Saw-Toothed Goldenbush

Hazardia squarrosa var. grindelioides

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Scarlet Larkspur

Delphinium cardinale

Silver Puffs

Uropappus lindleyi

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Soap Plant

Chloroglaum pomeridianum

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Southern Bush Monkeyflower

Diplacus longiflorus

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Southern California Black Walnut

Juglans californica

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Spotted Humboldt’s Lily

Lilium humboldtii ssp. ocellatum

Sunflower

Helianthus annuus

Threadleaf Ragwort

Senecio flaccidus

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Toyon

Heteromeles arbutifolia

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Western Columbine

Aquilegia formosa

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Western Wallflower

Erysimum capitatum

Wild Heliotrope