A long lived perennial, growing from a thick deep root, liatris aspera creates a spectacular display on xeric sand prairies from mid August to mid September, typically blooming along with western sunflower (Helianthus occidentalis), and flowering spurge. The photo on the Xeric Sand Prairie page shows this assemblage on a virgin sand prairie at Big Eastern, in Starke County, Indiana. In the case of the population at Big Eastern another common associate is pictured in the background to the right: Froelichia floridana campestris, a plant which is locally abundant (See Swink and Wilhelm) where bare sand is exposed--in this case a blowout.

Liatris aspera sometimes grows alongside its more gracile cousin Liatris spicata, the latter blooms somewhat earlier with a bit of overlap. L. aspera prefers more xeric locations and often blooms with special vigor in the bare sand of a dune blowout.

The late summer outburst of flowering on the sand prairie means a feast for nectar feeding insects, especially butterflies, bee flies, and various bees and wasps. Occasionally large groups of monarchs apparently in migration will descend upon the blooming sand prairie and attempt to monopolize this ever scarcer resource.