White Wood Aster,  Eurybia divaricata
(formerly Aster divaricatus  what happened?)
Asteraceae or Sunflower Family

Low herb with a few somewhat untidy flowers.  Each "flower" is really a head 3/4 to 1 inch wide containing a center of tiny yellow disc flowers surrounded by about a few white ray flowers.  Leaves are heart-shaped with long-pointed tips and sharp, coarse teeth.  Blooms in summer.

Native aster of woodlands.  Common in the woods on the western slope of the Park.

There are many asters (genera Eurybia and Symphyotrichum) in the Park; however, this is the only one that blooms in the summer, the others blooming in autumn.  Schreber's aster (E schreberi) is the fall-blooming aster most similar to white wood aster. Daisy fleabanes that bloom in the summer (Erigeron strigosus and E. annuus) have many more ray flowers in each flower head and prefer open areas like roadsides. Robin's Plantain (Erigen pulchellus) grows in the woodlands, but blooms in the spring and has many more ray flowers. Oxeye daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum) blooms in the summer, but in open areas; it has more, wider ray flowers.