Heartleaf Aster

Aster cordifolius

The leaves are all falling off the trees, and not much else is blooming in the park, but the asters are still blooming mightily.  One of the commonest asters in the park is the heartleaf aster.  This is easily recognized by the heartshaped lower leaves, as seen in the pictures.  There are also narrow leaves mixed in with the flowerheads, that are not at all heart-shaped.  The leaves, as seen in the picture, are sharply and coarsely toothed.  Asters, as we saw earlier, are in the Asteraceae or Sunflower Family, and have sunflower-like or daisy-like flowerheads with central clusters of tubular disc flowers surrounded by petal-like ray flowers.  In heartleaf aster, the usually 10-15 ray flowers are blue to purple, or sometimes, white.  The 10-15 tubular disc flowers in the center are cream to pale yellow, turning purple.  The flowerheads are about one-half to 5/8 inch wide.

Heartleaf aster is found in rich open woods, along streambanks, on leadges, and at the edges of swamps and woods.  It is often a weed in people's yards.  In Wildwood it is common along the Riverway bike path, along Wildwood Drive, and on the park boundary on Main Street.  It is native from Nova Scotia to Manitoba, south to Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, and Georgia.
 

White wood aster, Aster divaricatus, also has toothed, heart-shaped leaves, and its ray flowers are always white.  However, it blooms earlier than heartleaf aster, in late summer to early fall, prefers deeper woods, and has yellow disc flowers.  It is also somewhat smaller, but has somewhat larger flowers.

As we saw earlier, the genus name, Aster, comes from the Greek word for "star."  The species name cordifolius means "heart leaf." 

As noted earlier, when smooth aster, Aster laevis, was our species of the week, recent DNA evidence has led some scientists to split the genus Aster into many smaller genera, although this change has not had time to make it into all the guidebooks and other references yet.  Like smooth aster, heartleaf aster is now in the genus Symphyotrichum.  Its new name is Sympyotrichum cordifolium.

Asters will continue to bloom for awhile, but, as the cold settles in, the Park is slowly going to sleep, to wait out the winter.

GGC