of the flower. The word "aster" was used to describe a star-like flower as early as 1542 in , a book by the German physician and botanist Leonhart Fuchs. An old common name for Astereae species using the suffix "-wort" is "starwort", also spelled "star-wort" or "star wort". An early use of this name can be found in the same work by Fuchs as , translated from German literally as "star herb" ( ). The name "star-wort" was in use by Aiton in his 1789 Hortus Kewensis for Aster novae-angliae. He used the common names "New England cluster'd star-wort" and "New England panicl'd star-wort" in this work. Distribution and habitat Distribution Native New England aster is native to most of the central and northeastern United States and southeastern Canada, from Manitoba south to Louisiana and east to Maine. It is absent from much of the far southeastern United States and from boreal regions in North America. There are isolated populations to the west of the main range, such as in New Mexico and in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Introduced Due to widespread cultivation, introduced populations are present elsewhere in North America including in Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. It was found in Nova Scotia and considered a possible escapee from cultivation, but , it is categorized as native there. It is considered ephemeral in British Columbia, with recorded sightings in 1993 and 1994 near Vancouver, probably originating from railroad cars and garden waste. New England aster is widely naturalized throughout most of Europe, in parts of Central Asia, on the island of Hispaniola, and in the island country of New Zealand. Habitat S. novae-angliae is found in a wide variety of open, typically moist habitats, including meadows, prairies, marshes, fens, forest edges, and disturbed anthropogenic sites, such as roadsides and former agricultural fields. In its native habitat, it grows primarily in moist calcareous soils, favoring more marshy-wet sites in the western-most of its range. It is categorized on the United States National Wetland Plant List (NWPL) with the Wetland indicator status rating of Facultative Wetland (FACW) in all wetland regions, meaning it usually occurs in wetlands, but not out of necessity. For example, in one northern location, the Niagara Peninsula in southern Ontario, it was found to grow in dry and sandy soils. It grows best in soils with a pH of 5–7. Ecology Symphyotrichum novae-angliae has