Heres an interesting one: About 8 or 10 years ago, a friend of mine gave me a handful of these asters from her 1-acre meadow. They had popped up there on their own and certainly looked native, so we both assumed they were. In subsequent years I tried IDing it a couple times and came up with an answer I thought was satisfactory (cant remember what it was, but I likely thought it was smooth aster). Now Im realizing its too tall to fit any descriptions Im seeing of asters native to this region, and its leaves are different. From what Im reading online, I think it might be a Tatarian aster, native to Siberia and found by Rick Darke in a Japanese garden. Some of them are at least 7 feet tall now, and theyve spread nicely in this one flower bed, though theyve never seeded anywhere else (unlike my natives, which maybe should have been a clue?). I read that they have escaped cultivation and have become part of the Northeast landscape -- which would explain why my friend had them in her meadow. Has anyone else had experience with this plant, and do you think my IDing is correct? I dont really want to take it out because it blooms later than almost anything else and gives a lot of pollinators late-season sustenance.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 13:54:06 +0000
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