Calico Aster earns its name from the scattered, patchwork effect of its bloom. The flowers are small, each with white or pale lavender ray petals surrounding a yellow centre that ages to reddish with time, and they appear in broad panicles up to 10 inches long and 6 inches wide. The stems run from light green to reddish-brown with fine lines of white hairs, and the narrow lanceolate leaves, which can reach 4 inches long and half an inch wide, have a neat precision to them. Native across the eastern half of North America and found in all three physiographic regions of North Carolina, mountains through coastal plains, it is one of the more widely distributed native asters.

Growing 2 to 3 feet tall in zones 4 through 8, Calico Aster settles into woodland edges, shaded meadow borders, and dappled light situations where some shade-tolerance is an asset. It blooms in fall alongside the copper and brown tones of the season, the pale flowers working well against the warm foliage of surrounding plants. Like all asters it feeds bees and other pollinators at a time of year when nectar sources are thinning out, making it a functional as well as ornamental addition to naturalistic plantings.