Sunday, 8:00 AM. 53 degrees, wind W, modest with stronger gusts. The sky is cloudless except for a few on the eastern horizon. The rainy weather has blown out to the east, and the barometer predicts partly cloudy skies. The rain gage holds another .7” of rain.
Asters are the iconic wild flowers of the fall. The wild asters, also called Michaelmass daisies because they bloom around the time of the Feast of St. Michael, comprise a mostly North American genus in the Composite family. There are some 250 species. They are perennials with mostly blue, violet to purple, red, pink or white ray flowers. The center, or disk flowers are red, purple or occasionally white (one species, A ptarmicoides, is yellow). They are mostly plants of prairies, meadows and woods edges.
Since there are so many species, they can be difficult to identify, although some are well known. We have already mentioned the big-leaf Aster of the woods, and soon the showy New England Aster will bloom. The two pictured are, I believe, A. azureus(blue) and A. ericoides, the heath aster (white).
Fall is on the doorstep when the Asters bloom.
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