Formerly Aster latiflorus (-us instead of –um because Aster is masculine). These are the asters with tiny flower heads, often hundreds of them thickly covering the whole plant, that you see everywhere at the edges of lawns, in sidewalk cracks, and popping out from under hedges. Calico Asters (as we mentioned once before) are quite variable. “Consists of many races,” say Britton & Brown of this species, “differing in leaf-form, inflorescence and pubescence.” “Extensively variable,” says Gray. In other words, asters thumb their noses at the notion of a “species.” These are worth looking at with a magnifying glass: the disk flowers (the ones that make up the center of the flower head) look like little starfish, changing from pale translucent yellow through pink to deep rose. Flowers at all stages are on the plant at once, giving it the calico effect for which it is named.
The American members of the genus Aster have been moved to the genus Symphyotrichum, and we hope they like it there. This is our showiest Aster, and the pink form is fairly rare; Gray would make it var. roseus (which, in the neuter genus Symphyotrichum instead of the masculine Aster, would be var. roseum). We also have pictures of the usual purple form and the very rare white form.
Gray describes the genus Aster (where all North American species of Symphyotrichum lived until recently) and the species:
ASTER [Tourn.] L. STAR-WORT, FROST-FLOWER, ASTER. Heads many-flowered, radiate; the ray-flowers in a single series, fertile. Bracts of the involucre more or less imbricated, usually with herbaceous or leaf-like tips. Receptacle flat, alveolate. Achenes more or less flattened; pappus simple, of capillary bristles (double in 4 and 5). Perennial herbs (annual only in 7 and 8), with corymbed, panicled, or racemose heads, flowering chiefly in autumn. Rays white, purple, blue, or pink; the disk yellow, often changing to purple. Species often without sharply defined limits, freely hybridizing. (Name aster, a star, from the radiate heads of flowers.)
A. nòvae-ángliae L. Stem stout, hairy, 0.5-2.6 m. high, corymbed at the summit; leaves numerous, lanceolate, entire, acute, auriculate-clasping, 930. A. oblongifolius. clothed with minute pubescence, 0.5- 1 dm. long; bracts nearly equal, linear-awl-shaped, loose, glandular-viscid, as well as the branchlets; rays violet-purple, rarely white, very numerous; achenes hairy. Moist chiefly calcareous grounds, centr. Me. to w. Que., westw. and south w. Aug.-Oct. Heads large ; a very handsome species, popular in cultivation. (Escaped from gardens, and locally naturalized in Eu.) FIG. 931. Var. róseus (Desf.) DC. Rays pink or rose-color. Range of the typical form, local.
More often these plants have no rays on their flower heads, but forms with rays do occur, and this patch growing in Bird Park (Mount Lebanon) had unusually abundant rays on some flower heads (none on others). The “bur” in the name is the seed, which has a pair of little spikes that attach it to fur or clothing, spreading the plant very efficiently. It is distinguished from Spanish Needles (Bidens bipinnata) by larger flower heads with more florets, and by its leaves with three or five leaflets. The stems are often reddish.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
BÌDENS L. BUR MARIGOLD. Heads many-flowered; the rays when present 3-8, neutral. Involucre double, the outer commonly large and foliaceous. Receptacle flattish; chaff deciduous with the fruit. Achenes flattened parallel to the bracts of the involucre, or slender and 4-sided (rarely terete), crowned with awns or short teeth (these rarely naked). — Annual or perennial herbs, with opposite various leaves, and mostly yellow flowers. (Latin, bidens, two-toothed.)
N. B. — In this genus the measurements of the fruit relate to the inner mature achenes. The outer are often shorter and uncharacteristic.
B. frondòsa L. (BEGGAR-TICKS.) Stems tall (7 dm. or less in height), paniculate-branched; leaves 3–5-divided, glabrous, the terminal leaflet long-stalked, acuminate, often again divided, lateral ones shorter, less acuminate, all sharply serrate; heads 1.5 cm. long or less, on slender peduncles; outer involucre of 5–8 ciliate bracts; rays small, yellow; achenes narrowly cuneate, 7-10 mm. long, black, strongly 1-nerved on each face, often slightly hairy, the retrorsely barbed slightly divergent slender awns barely half as long, exceeding the 5-toothed orange corolla. (B. melanocarpa Wiegand.) — Common in damp ground, throughout. Aug., Sept. Fig. 994. Var. ANOMALA Porter. Awns upwardly barbed. — Local, N. S. to Pa.
A distinctive goldenrod that likes clearings in the woods or the banks of a stream. Its broad rounded toothy leaves are distinctive, and it takes its common name from the angled stems, which zigzag from one leaf to the next. (“Zigzag” is a technical term in botany.) The flowers grow in a wand at the top of the stem, with more flowers filling in the leaf axils.
Gray gives us a description of the genus Solidago:
SOLIDAGO L. GOLDEN-ROD. Heads few-many-flowered, radiate; the rays 1-16, pistillate. Bracts of the involucre appressed, destitute of herbaceous tips (except nos. 1 and 2). Receptacle small, not chaffy. Achenes many-ribbed, nearly terete; pappus simple, of equal capillary bristles. —Perennial herbs, with mostly wand-like stems and sessile or nearly sessile never heart-shaped stem-leaves. Heads small, racemed or clustered; flowers both of the disk and ray yellow (cream-color in no. 6). Closely related species tending to hybridize freely. (Name from solidare, to join, or make whole, in allusion to reputed vulnerary qualities.)
Gray makes this species part of Solidago latifolia, so we turn to Britton for a description of the species according to current taxonomy (note his use of the technical botanical term we mentioned above):
Solidago flexicaulis L. ZIG-ZAG OR BROAD-LEAVED GOLDENROD. Stem glabrous, angled, usually simple, zig-zag, 3-9 dm. high. Leaves thin, ovate, acuminate at the apex, somewhat pubescent, or glabrous beneath, sharply serrate, 5-17 cm. long, 2-10 cm. wide, the uppermost sometimes lanceolate and entire or nearly so; heads about 6 mm. high; bracts of the involucre obtuse to acutish; achenes hirsute-pubescent. In rich woods, N. B. to Ga., west to S. Dak. and Kans. July-Sept.
Sneezeweed is an attractive composite flower with distinctively notched rays that make it easy to identify. (A similar species, Purple-Headed Sneezeweed, Heleniumflexuosum, has been introduced in a few locations; it is easy to distinguish by the dark brownish button in the center.) The plant likes damp areas; this one was growing in Schenley Park, in a section of former lawn that is being allowed to grow into a meadow for better water retention. It was blooming in the middle of September.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
HELÈNIUM L. SNEEZEWEED. Heads many-flowered, radiate; rays several, wedge-shaped, 3-6-cleft, fertile, rarely sterile. Involucre small, reflexed; the bracts linear or awl-shaped. Receptacle globose or ellipsoid. Achenes top-shaped, ribbed; pappus of 6-8 thin 1-nerved chaffy scales, the nerve usually extended into a bristle or point. — Erect branching herbs with alternate leaves, often sprinkled with bitter aromatic resinous globules; heads yellow, rarely purple, terminal, single or corymbed. (The Greek name of some plant, said to be named after Helenus, son of Priam.)
Leaves broad, decurrent on the angled stem.
H. autumnàle L. Perennial, nearly smooth, 0.2-2 m. high; leaves mostly toothed, lanceolate to ovate-oblong; heads larger (2-4 cm. broad); disk yellow; rays fertile, yellow. — Alluvial river-banks and wet ground, w. Que. and w. Mass. to Man., southw. and westw. Aug.-Oct.
Flora Pittsburghensis 