There is a widely blooming wildflower, often quite subtle but
attractive, that signals the end of the flowering season, like
the final act of the fall play. You could call them the stars of
autumn, the asters. In fact their name in Greek means star, and
legend indicates that this wildflower was the chosen plant of
John Alden and Priscilla of early New England days.
Asters are primarily North American flowers with around 150
species found here -- they grow sparingly elsewhere in the world.
Canada has about 60 to 70 species while Europe and Russia each
sport ten. What’s so exciting about the asters is that they can
be found in so many different habitats ranging from wetlands to
prairies, deciduous to evergreen woods and from practically
desert environments to the cold wet bogs.
These conspicuous widespread plants are largely perennials
ranging in color from white to blue, lavender, pink, purple and
hosts of intermediate shades. Unfortunately the color of some
species is not uniform and may vary, for example, from lavender
to white making for difficult identification.
Not only are these popular wildflowers highly variable, they
also are known to cross with other wild species. You may have to
dissect the disc of an individual flower and then use a good hand
lens and ruler to examine and measure parts of the disc flowers
for accurate identification. I have usually been quite content
to simply refer to the asters as white, blue, purple, etc., my
primary concern being to enjoy the exquisite color combinations
of these blossoms to their fullest.
Two of my favorites are the bog aster, Aster nemoralis
(nem-o-RAY-lis) and the red-stemmed aster, Aster puniceus
(pew-NISS-e-us). I’ve marveled at some red-stemmed asters
that were around six feet tall, among the taller species of our
region. One of the most widely-planted and showy asters is the
New England aster, A. novae angliae (NO-vee- ANG-lee-ee),
meaning "of New England." Strangely, this
highly-admired and beautiful aster is actually quite uncommon in
New England!
Even though the asters are late-blossoming plants, they
produce seeds rapidly which are usually spread by the wind over
the countryside, often over the shallow crusty snow of early
winter.
All of the asters are quite sensitive and do poorly after
being picked. In fact many of the flower heads close shortly
after they are gathered. Like so many other wildflowers, they
are best admired and studied where they grow.
One finds, upon examining a blossom, that it is made up of
thin, outer, strap-shaped ray flowers and a closely packed
central cluster of disc flowers. So in reality what is referred
to as one flower is actually many individual flowers, a genuine
composite. Pick an aster blossom, carefully pull it apart down
the center and you can easily examine the individual parts. With
aster plants being so numerous throughout the countryside, this
might provide students with some excellent beginning botany
lessons . Each ray flower consists of what is normally called
a petal. Attached to the inner end and angled upward is a small
Y-shaped stigma. Fastened to the inner end of the ray flower
(which is a pistillate or female flower) but angled downward, is
the ovary. When fertilized it will produce a fruit, usually
erroneously referred to in this case as a seed.
Fastened to the upper tip of the ovary is the pappus, a
cluster of tiny hairs or bristles that takes the place of the
calyx (or group of sepals) in individual flowers and eventually
serves as a parachute to carry the ripened fruit to a new
"garden."
The central part of the flower, the cluster of staminate disc
flowers, is usually yellow at first but turns reddish as the
flower ages. Each tubular disc flower contains a thin Y-shaped
stamen. Nectar is found in the tubes and can be reached by
long-tongued insects such as bumblebees and butterflies. The New
England asters I studied and photographed yesterday had numerous
honey- bees actively gathering pollen from the disc flowers.
A small number of animals, including the ruffed grouse, tree
sparrow, cottontail and even white-tailed deer are known to
occasionally make use of the "seed" heads as food.
An aster blossom is quite attractive when viewed from the
side. Thin pointed bracts overlap in several circles and form
what appears as a long tapered green receptacle from which the
blossom grows. Outer bracts are shorter than the inner ones.
Collectively they make up what is called the involucre
(in-vo-LEW-cur) of the blossom. (How ideal it would be to
provide each of you readers with a flowering aster plant to
carefully examine as you read this story, paragraph by
paragraph. Better yet, take the story with you afield for some
learning on the spot!)
Galaxy by galaxy the asters now decorate the meadows and
roadsides in beautiful constellations. They await your
discovery and enjoyment, and for each new species you positively
identify you may award yourself with a star!
Asters are the star players in the autumn pageant.
This column appeared in the Door County Advocate
on 10/18/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Roy Lukes. All rights reserved.
