HEATH ASTER (Frost Aster. Frostweed) 

 Astec pilosus Willd. 



September - October Everywhere over the countryside, over Illinois 

 Roadsides, fields from one end to the other, from the Wisconsin 



border to the meeting of the rivers at Cairo, from 

 the Wabash to the Mississippi, and over a large part of the entire con- 

 tinent, from British Columbia and Maine to Texas and Arizona and 

 Georgia, the heath aster in Septeml^er is in blossom. It is one of the most 

 abundant of all wild asters. The white frost of heath asters whitens 

 almost every countiy road, borders almost every pond and swamp, frosts 

 the uplands and is a mist of white in the lowlands. It is a simple little 

 white aster with a yellow center and it grows almost everywhere. 



The heath aster an-anges its small white flowers along secondary 

 stems which branch methodically from the curving main stem. The whole 

 stalk forms a bending garland of white flowers which are lightly set and 

 host to flying insects when the sun is warm. The leaves of heath aster 

 are thin and short and narrow, rather like those of the heath itself. 

 Erica, which resemblance gave the aster its common name. 



There are many small white asters in autunni : there are so many 

 that they add only confusion to an already confusing plant group. There 

 is the loosely flowered Tradescant^s aster (Aster tnuUsmnti) named for 

 John Tradescant who had the plant growing in the king's gardens at 

 Lambeth. There is the little wreath aster {Aster multifiorus) which has 

 its l)ending branches thickly set with tiny white flowers half the size of 

 the heath aster but more than twice as abundant. The entire plant is a 

 wreath of flowers and forms grey-white masses along roadsides. 



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