Asters
September 9, 2025
herbaceous, observations | permalink
I took a stroll around the terrace today and noticed that an aster was about to bloom, and then when I looked closer I realized there were actually two different kinds of asters growing right next to each other. One was shorter and more bush-like, while the other was taller and just had a few stems on its own. I used Inaturalist's Seek app to identify them, and it came up with small white aster (Symphyotrichum racemosum) and hairy white oldfield aster (Symphyotrichum pilosum). So that was cool - I only thought I had one type. But then, as I continued my stroll, I found one that had purplish leaves and stems. Seek identified it as a calico aster (Symphyotrichum lateriflorum). So not one, not two, but (at least) three types of asters since I let it go wild when we moved in three years ago. Seek has been wrong before, so I need work to verify those IDs, but it's at least a start.
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