June - August 

 Sands 



GOLDEN-ASTER 



Chrysopsis villosa (Purshj Nutt. 



Ill ihc s;iii(l tdiintrv in inidsunniu'r. and well into 

 Scptcnilu'r, the slopes of old dunes and the wind-blown 

 roadsides are brif,dit with tiie yellow flowers of golden- 

 aster. The flowers are an inch wide with iiiinierous yellow rays aronml 

 a center of yellow stMincns nnd ])istils. dandclidn-like blossoms held erei-t 

 to the sun. "Asix'c l nl (iold", tln' (iirck n;inu' denotes, and the sand 

 country does incU'ed t<ike on a golden aspect when Chrysopsis blooms. 

 Tt comes at a time wIkmi the full blaze of summer ('omposites has 

 not yet made its a|)i)eariince ; yet tbeie is alxnit the jjlant the look of a 

 late-flowering ])laut. like a small double sunflower somehow misplaced 

 am(»ng the sands. (Jolden-aster, however, is not even a true aster, though 

 still a Composite; no true asters are ytdlow. 'I'he bnives are densely hairy 

 and rough, and are placed somewhat spirally around the brittle, hairy 

 stem. 



The roots go deejjly into the yellow-brown sand. Here the golden- 

 aster is an integral part of the landscape, there along th»^ Illinois River 

 and other streams ueai' which the glacier left acres of sand. These sands 

 became anchorecl by cluiups ot piairie giass and the traveling roots of 

 rabbit's bean and cacti, i)y tiie roots of wild indigo and lead ]ilant, and 

 by the thousands of stiff, two-foot i)lants of golden-aster. Without these 

 essential plants the sand ijcrju'tually would shift in the incessant wind; 

 there would be no stability of the landscape, no roadside ."afe from drift- 

 ing dunes which inexorably move under the finger of wind to places else- 

 where, grain by grain, heap by heap, onward across the countryside. 

 Plants like golden-aster provide anchorage as well as sununer color in 

 the Illinois country. 



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