Jewels of the autumn meadow

clusters of small flowers in an open, sunny field. They look almost crystalline, as if they would be prickly to the touch, like statice. The small white aster has a fuller and softer look with taller stems and larger flowers arranged more openly on its branches.

Fall fair winner

Without rival, the New England aster is the showiest member of this large genus, its long and numerous purple rays set off by a bright golden disc. This species makes a suitable garden plant, and several cultivated varieties are available at greenhouses in the spring or fall. It is a widespread wildflower, native to most of North America except tropical, desert and boreal regions.

Perhaps because asters make their cheerful appearance in the fall, various concoctions of its plant parts were used by  the Iroquois as a treatment for fever and diarrhea.

They boost my health enough, just in knowing these bright ornaments will survive the first light frosts. Their colours will continue to festoon my favourite meadows for several weeks until thick silver tracery closes another radiant season.

Aster resources

• Asters by Doug Collicutt in Nature North.com
• An overview of asters by John C. Semple, a scientific researcher of asters and professor in the Department of Biology at University of Waterloo, Ontario
• Plants National Database from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
• Native American Ethnobotany Database (search using the old genus name, Aster)

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic