COMPOSITE FAMILY COMPOSITAE 
NEW ENGLAND ASTER 
Aster novae-angliae L. 
Britton & Brown’s “Illustrated Flora” describes 75 species 
of Aster in northern United States and Canada, and records 
exist of 57 that occur in Illinois. Ten of the most common are 
given here. 
This, one of the largest and most 
beautiful of the wild Asters, is often 
cultivated. Introduced into Europe 
as a garden flower, it has escaped and 
become established there in the wilds 
of some places. It grows here in moist 
grounds from Quebec to Saskatche- 
wan and south to Alabama, Kansas 
and Colorado. 
The stout hairy stem is 2-8 feet 
high, branched near the top and very 
leafy. The leaves are lanceolate, en- 
tire, rather thin and hairy. They are 
2-5 inches long, about 1 inch wide, 
and the broad base clasps the stem. 
The large heads are numerous, 
1-2 inches broad and more or less 
clustered at the ends of the branches. 
They bloom from August to October. 
The linear-awl-shaped bracts of the 
involucre are green, hairy, more or 
less glandular and sticky, and loosely — 
spreading. There are 40-50 narrow rays which are violet-purple, 
or rarely pink, red or white. The pappus is reddish white and 
the akenes are hairy. 
The Sky-blue Aster, 4ster azureus Lindl., is found on prairies and 
along the borders of woods. The stem is slender but stiff and 1-4 feet 
high. The leaves are thick, entire and rough on both sides. The lower — 
leaves are heart shaped, oblong or lanceolate, and have long, often 
hairy petioles; the upper are narrow and sessile. The heads are — 
numerous and about one-half inch high. The smooth, linear-oblong © 
bracts of the top-shaped involucre overlap in several series with their 
green tips appressed. There are 10-20 bright blue ray flowers, and the 
pappus is yellowish. This aster is known from western New York to 
Minnesota, south to Georgia, Missouri and Texas. 
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