Kalimeris incisa 'BLUE STAR' Japanese aster

Kalimeris

The genus Kalimeris belongs to the daisy family (Asteraceae) and includes only a small number of perennial species native to East Asia. Their natural range lies mainly in Japan, Korea, and eastern China, where they grow in moist meadows, open woodland, and along streams and riverbanks. These are not botanical curiosities from remote mountain ranges, but plants that have accompanied everyday rural life for centuries. In Japan, kalimeris species appear both in traditional gardens and in agricultural landscapes, especially along the edges of rice paddies, on embankments, and in transitional zones of moist ground. Here they enjoy consistent moisture without ever standing in water, and their long flowering season brings colour at a time when many summer plants are already beginning to fade. The genus was described in the 19th century by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle (1778–1841), a Swiss botanist of French descent and one of the figures who helped translate the flora of Asia into the language of European botany, species by species, genus by genus.

Kalimeris incisa, known in Japanese as Nokon‑giku (ノコンギク), loosely translated as “field chrysanthemum,” has no established scientific common name in Czech, and in practice is referred to by the English-derived name Japanese aster. The species epithet incisa (“cut” or “incised”) refers to the distinctly notched, deeply toothed leaf margins, which appear as if they had been lightly scored with a knife. Native to Japan, this is a plant that wins affection precisely because it is not showy. It is neither a collector’s rarity nor a trophy plant, but a simple, undemanding perennial once planted around houses, along paths, and in ordinary gardens. There it flowered all summer long with little care, forming an unobtrusive yet constant presence in everyday life, naturally woven into the landscape and local customs. The species was first scientifically described by Carl Johann Maximowicz (1827–1891), one of the most important botanists of the 19th century, who devoted his life to the study of East Asian flora. In that botanical world, Maximowicz held a position comparable to that of Linnaeus in Europe, as his work fundamentally helped to name and describe vast numbers of plants that had previously been only vaguely known in the West. A Baltic German in Russian service, he spent most of his professional life at the Imperial Botanical Garden in St. Petersburg, where he eventually became its director. His name is now commemorated in numerous plant species, from trees to perennials.