The uphill battle of aster identification

Asters are no longer asters, they are in the genus Symphotrichtum, unless they are Eurybia, and there are dozens of species.

They are all harassed-looking daisy-types with 1/4″ or 1 1/2″ flowers, heart shaped leaves or lance-like leaves, in varying shades of murky blues and purples and whites and pinks. Most of them are close enough to at least one other sister species to make identification a crapshoot, but since no one wants to deal with them if we declare guesses authoritatively no one will question it.

They look a little bit messy but they are the go-to destination for fall pollinators and when the angle from the sun gets narrows to the horizon late in the season the way that the light catches the pale flowers can be truly gorgeous, and it’s a good feeling when there nearly as many pollinators on them as flowers.

Here are my best guesses for what we have seeding around…one of those areas where I guess I will be incrementally knowing *slightly* more each year until they play with the Latin names and then I’ll know nothing again. I’ll consider it a Buddhist exercise of being reborn into unknowing, like I never know what robot I’m supposed to be speaking to in the kitchen. (‘Hey, whoever you are, play My Sharona on Sonos…’)

White wood aster (Eurybia divarcata) Shade loving, 10″ tall or less, frayed white flowers <1", broad, serrated leaves. There is another species with blue flowers (that would be Blue Wood Aster)