WILDLIFE OF THE WEEK
Asters
As Fall marches on in the Northern hemisphere, it’s easy to miss the continuation of Summer’s showy parade of wildflowers if chilly mornings keep you inside. But make no mistake—Fall is a season of abundant blossoms, too, and these literal late-bloomers provide important resources for pollinators like bumblebees as they stock up for Winter after Spring and Summer flowers have tapped out. Asters are among the most prolific and common Fall wildflowers throughout Europe and North America, where their many-petaled, round flowers usually contrast Autumnal oranges, reds, and browns with a powdery blue, white, or purple and yellow center. Hardy to cold and not requiring tons of water, Asters make excellent native garden plants, and are the food plant for gorgeous butterflies like the crescents or crescentspots (Physciodes sp.). Their late blooms are also sure to bring dazzling parades of gorgeous end-of-season butterflies through your yard. Asters belong to one of the largest families of plants in the world, with over 32,000 known species including their close cousins the daisies and sunflowers.
A skipper butterfly (family Hesperidae) feeding on an Aster in the mountains of Yellowstone National Park in early Fall 2024.
A proliferation of short asters I found growing amongst lichens in the dunes behind Crane Beach in Ipswich, Massachusetts in 2015.
LATEST BLOG POST
11 Outdoor Essentials for Your Nature “Go-bag”
One of the best pieces of advice I ever got as an aspiring naturalist was to be ready to go outside at any time; to seize free moments to get out there and let my feet and my mind wander. An amazing way to take the hassle out of connecting with nature is setting yourself up a “go-bag” with everything you need to safely and comfortably spend a long period time outside. Maintaining a go-bag has helped me spend a lot more time in nature and say “Yes!” when spur-of-the-moment opportunities and invitations arrived. This new post highlights essential items for a naturalists’ go-bag to help you get out there and get to know your natural world.
NATURALIST WORD OF THE WEEK
Dehiscence (n.) - The spontaneous opening of ripe plant structures to release seeds or spores due to the drying of special plant structures that make a brittle “seam” along which they break open. A common occurrence in Fall when many plants disperse their seeds.
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