428 



COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY) 



BUSHY ASTER 

 Boltonia asteroides, L'Her. 



Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom: Late July to October. 



Seed-time: September to November. 



Range : New Jersey to Minnesota, southward to Florida, Louisiana, 



and Nebraska. 

 Habitat : Moist soil ; low meadows, banks of streams, and ditches. 



The common name of this plant fits it well, for it has 

 all the appearance of a big and bushy 

 Aster and is nearly akin to that Family. 

 Stem two to six feet tall, stout, smooth, 

 pale green, much branched, and very 

 leafy. Leaves alternate, the lower ones 

 oblong to lance-shaped or slightly broad- 

 ened above the middle, thick, smooth, 

 entire, pointed, sessile, often turned edge- 

 wise; upper leaves much smaller, acute, 

 and nearly linear. Heads numerous, in 

 loosely branched corymbose clusters, each 

 about a half-inch broad, with many nar- 

 row pistillate, and fertile rays, white, 

 pale pink, or purplish, mostly the last. 

 Disk rounded and yellow, the florets per- 

 fect and fertile. Achenes flattened, obo- 

 vate or heart-shaped, winged on the 

 margin, and, instead of an Aster's hairy 

 pappus, are crowned with several short, 

 prickly scales and two to four bristly 

 awns about as long as the achene. (Fig. 

 298.) 



FIG. 298. Bushy Aster 

 (Boltonia asteroides). X i. 



Means of control 



Ground infested with this weed indicates a need of better drain- 

 age. Prevent seed production by close cutting while in early 

 bloom. Cultivation of the soil destroys the perennial roots. 



