I have lots of photos I didn't get around to posting earlier this fall. Some of my favorite late species are the asters, though I'm still learning to identify many of them beyond the genus.
This year I made what I think is a positive identification for Lowrie's aster, which has leaves with a sharp point and distinctive winged stalk. I got photos of those features but they were not the best shots of the flowers, so here's one of the flowers:
Lowrie's aster (Symphyotrichum lowrieanum), 17 September 2011 [Photo credit: Cathie Bird]
These asters were abundant this year, but many of the individuals were in shadier parts of the holler, so I had to go out at different times of day to try to catch some in the sun.
I think this is a calico aster, a species with centers that change from yellow to purple as each flower ages:
Calico aster (Symphyotrichum lateriflora), 20 October 2011 [Photo credit: Cathie Bird]
I found two purple asters. One species was growing up higher in the holler; the other had much larger flowers, was darker purple, and grew further down the lane.
Smaller and lighter of the two aster species, 7 October 2011 [Photo credit: Cathie Bird]
These are the larger and purpler flowers on 5 October 2011 [Photo credit: Cathie Bird]
The larger species grew in large numbers along Terry Creek Lane this year, making my drive out to the main road a very colorful one.
In the 1990's native North American asters were renamed after morphologic research suggested they were better placed in genera related to, but separate from, the Old World asters, which kept the Aster genus designation. This is making it harder on me to figure out who is who among the holler asters!
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