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any composite plant of the genus Aster, having rays varying from white or pink to blue around a yellow disk.
a plant of some allied genus, as the .
Cell Biology. a structure formed in a cell during mitosis, composed of astral rays radiating about the centrosome.
Furniture. (def 2).
a diminutive or pejorative suffix denoting something that imperfectly resembles or mimics the true thing:
criticaster; poetaster, oleaster.
Chiefly Biology. a combining form with the meaning “star,” used in the formation of compound words:
diaster.
Historical Examples

The China aster (Callistephus chinensis) is also a member of the order Compositae.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 7 Various

Why it received the common name of aster I have never been able to find out.
Making a Garden of Perennials W. C. Egan

The company that took the work in hand, the aster Company, had confidence in the inventor’s ideas.
The Mastery of the Air William J. Claxton

The aster, on the contrary, has a special talent for variation.
The Foot-path Way Bradford Torrey

The glowing apple and the juicy pear follow the lily and the rose, and are followed in their turn, by the aster and the ivy–bloom.
Country Rambles, and Manchester Walks and Wild Flowers Leo H. Grindon

Even in our mother’s day it was still called the China aster.
The Mayflower, January, 1905 Various

A little beyond, aster alpinus was in flower, of a bright color, which I can never get it to show in gardens.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 561, October 2, 1886 Various

The red spider and aphis have no special fondness for the aster.
The Mayflower, January, 1905 Various

If carefully done, an aster in almost full bloom can be taken up and replanted without injuring it in the least.
The Mayflower, January, 1905 Various

Root-lice, blue aphis, etc., is one of the most common enemies of the aster.
The Mayflower, January, 1905 Various

noun
any plant of the genus Aster, having white, blue, purple, or pink daisy-like flowers: family Asteraceae (composites) Compare golden aster
China aster, a related Chinese plant, Callistephus chinensis, widely cultivated for its showy brightly coloured flowers
(cytology) a group of radiating microtubules that surrounds the centrosome before and during mitosis
suffix
a person or thing that is inferior or bears only a poor resemblance to what is specified: poetaster
n.

flower genus, 1706, from Latin aster “star” (see star (n.)); so called for the radiate heads of the flowers. Originally used in English in the Latin sense (c.1600) but this is obsolete.

word-forming element expressing incomplete resemblance (e.g. poetaster), usually diminutive and deprecatory, from Latin, from Greek -aster, suffix originally forming nouns from verbs ending in -azein, later generalized as a pejorative suffix, e.g. Greek patraster “he who plays the father.”

aster as·ter (ās’tər)
n.
See astrosphere.