The Canada Aster, Great Northern Aster, Western Bog Aster, aster modeste

Canadanthus Nesom includes a single x=9 species of North American aster first described as Aster modestus Lindl. Nesom (1994) placed the species in its own genus Canadanthus as Canadanthus modestus (Lindl.) G.L. Nesom. Xiang and Semple (1996) found it to be basal within Symphyotrichum in the broadest sense based on cpDNA RFLP analysis. This was confirmed in Brouillet et al.(2001). Semple (in Semple et al.1996) treated it as Aster modestus. Nesom's combination was accepted by Semple et al.(2002) and is the name used for the species Flora North America (Brouillet 2006 FNA).