Golden Solidaster – X Solidaster luteus

Common Name: Solidaster, Aster, Golden Solidaster

Botanical Name: X Solidaster luteus, so-li-DAS-ter LOO-tee-us

Decorative Life: 7-10 days.

Flower Color: Yellow

Availability: Year Round

32-38 degrees F.

• Solidaster is an intergeneric hybrid, a cross between Aster and Solidago (goldenrod) originating in Lyon, France at the Leonard Lille Nursery in 1910. The “X” in front of the genus name indicates that it is a cross between two genera. The specific epithet name “luteus” means yellow, in reference to the flower color.
• Is sometimes mistakenly identified as Solidago missouriensis.
• The Compositae or aster family is vast, with over 20,000 species, and is also one of the most developed families. It was named Compositae because the flowers are actually a “composite” of many individual flowers into one head. Hence, when children pull one “petal” off at a time, saying “she/he loves me, loves me not”, they are actually removing a complete flower, not just a petal.
• Good as a filler.

Reid (2000) demonstrated that flower food effectiveness varied greatly depending on brand name compared to plain tap water and a bleach/tap water solution.