September 5, 2010 - Aster Time
Welcome to the Nature Notebook.

By now, many of our summer wildflowers are just a fading memory. But there is one group of wildflowers that seems to dominate the late summer and early autumn. They are the asters, a hardy group of plants. Asters are conspicuous in open areas. Their flowerheads are composed of outer petal-like rays surrounding central yellow flowers. Asters vary from white to pink to blue. A leftover from summer, chicory, with its blue flowers blooms along roadsides and field edges. The yellow of goldenrods gives fields a bright wash of color from now until the first frosts. The blue and yellow flowers of New England aster are close companions of goldenrod. The towering pinkish-purple flowers of Joe-pye weed contrast to the deep purple of New York ironweed. Hiding in woodland shadows are the white flowers of wood asters waiting for discovery.

This is PPL's naturalist, Jon Beam, with the Nature Notebook for WVIA.