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| BIG LEAF ASTER COVERING THE FOREST FLOOR... |
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| ...ROSETTE OF LARGE BASAL LESVES... |
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| ...SMALLER LEAVES OF THE FLOWERING STEM... |
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| ASTER FLOWERING STEM WITH FLOWER PANICLE |
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| LAPPIN SWEET CHERRIES |
Sunday, 800 AM. 69 degrees F at the ferry dock, 67 on the back porch. Wind SSW, very light with occasional light gusts. The sky is mostly clear with some haze. The humidity is 93% after a trace of rain earlier. The barometer stands at 29.72" and is rising. The next few days should be clear and pleasant, then temperatures around 80, with chances of thunderstorms, on Tuesday and Wednesday. It should be much cooler after that for the rest of the week. The storm that threatened yesterday afternoon and evening slipped south and east and we got little but clouds and a few rain drops.
The second crop of local sweet cherries, the Lappin cherries, are being picked at Apple Hill Orchard. They are a firm, pretty red cherry, not quite as sweet, at least this year, as the earlier Cavalier.
The big leaf aster, Aster macrophyllus, in the Sunflower Family, the Compositae, is an early aster of woods and woods edges. In the Bayfield region it forms large colonies in the mixed conifer and hardwoods understory. The species name translates from the Latin as large-leaved.
The perennial plant has a rosette of large basal leaves, from which it sends up a flower spike with smaller leaves on the stalk, topped by a panicle of white to light pink to mauve composite flowers wlth a bright yellow center. All in all it is an attractive flowering ground cover. It ranges from the mixed forests of the northeast and Canada to around the great lakes and beyond, and southward in the Appalachian Mountains.
The perennial plant has a rosette of large basal leaves, from which it sends up a flower spike with smaller leaves on the stalk, topped by a panicle of white to light pink to mauve composite flowers wlth a bright yellow center. All in all it is an attractive flowering ground cover. It ranges from the mixed forests of the northeast and Canada to around the great lakes and beyond, and southward in the Appalachian Mountains.
The young leaves are edible and were used as greens by American Indians, and smoked as an attractant and charm for deer hunting.
Big leaf aster is one of those valuable native groundcover plants that builders and new homeowners probably don't know, and often damage irretrievably during construction. It is always wise to get some expert advice on what is growing before drawing a plan or plotting a driveway on a wooded lot.
Big leaf aster is one of those valuable native groundcover plants that builders and new homeowners probably don't know, and often damage irretrievably during construction. It is always wise to get some expert advice on what is growing before drawing a plan or plotting a driveway on a wooded lot.
OFF THE CUFF
A note to Almanac readers: some of you have indicated that you do not agree with my "off the cuff" remarks, and I do get occasional feedback from readers who don't appreciate my mostly conservative comments. I don't mean to offend anyone, but I write The Almanac primarily as a means of self expression, without any other reward; it is a shout-out from my rooftop, so to speak. However, I wish to be as accurate and objective as possible in presenting the botanical and other information.
That's why I decided to label my political or social comments clearly, and separately from the main body of the post. You can read about Bayfield weather, happenings, plants and landscaping and stop, if you wish, at "Off The Cuff." Not that I mind in the least a friendly discourse about politics or whatever; I'm certainly up for that.
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