Tiny purple aster-like flowers on a shrub-like plant

popmama (Colorado, USDA z5)

8 years ago

Seen blooming just this week in Denver.

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Comments (6)

NHBabs z4b-5a NH
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
It does look like an aster, but I find it difficult to distinguish between them. Any info on plant height, flower diameter, etc or close up photos of the foliage might help.
kayjones
8 years ago
Aster laevis, 'Bluebird' Smooth Aster
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Weakley's key says that main or middle stem leaves average 3x as long as wide, and have long-tapered bases for .var lanceolata. Main or middle stem leaves average 2x as long as wide, with broadly rounded bases for var. vulgaris. We see more of the upper leaves in your photo. The lower ones do appear shorter, broader, and have more rounded bases. There's even a little understood, third variant (.var hispida) that has stems, petioles, and sometimes lower leaf surfaces densely villous-hispid. The same .var vulgaris parts are only sparingly, and not conspicuously, pilose. All of that said, your plant seems most like .var vulgaris to me.
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I have a friend who is in an herbal class and I might offer it to him to do with it what he likes, but I do think I’m going to prevent the plant from going to seed. The fact that it’s a “native plant“ doesn’t mean that much to me horticulturally, and the flowers sure are tiny. Carol23_gw, thanks for your forthrightness. P.S. the greatest mystery for me remains how a Lobelia inflata plant got into my garden at all! I don’t think I’ve ever seen it as a weed around here in Boston, and I’ve been to a lot of gardens over the last few years.
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popmama (Colorado, USDA z5)
Original Author
8 years ago
I guess it is an Aster. I just never thought they were on such a nice shrub-like plant. These were about 2 - 2.5' tall about the same width. The flowers were very tiny, I'd say just smaller than a quarter.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
8 years ago
next time.. no pix at noon... the contrast is way off.. making it hard to see..

also.. a little closer next time.. on leaves and flowers ... we will take your word on the shrub shape but ID requires our poor old eyes focusing on the important parts ...

ken
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
8 years ago
It is certainly an Aster or Aster relation. Many are a little shrub-like in shape and height but they don't make a permanent woody framework so they are herbaceous perennials, not shrubs.
bostedo: 8a tx-bp-dfw
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Possibly aromatic aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium), which is native to your area. Can't see enough detail, but form reminds me of our 'October Skies', which is blooming now in north Texas.

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Tiny purple aster-like flowers on a shrub-like plant

Comments (6)

NHBabs z4b-5a NH

kayjones

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popmama (Colorado, USDA z5)
Original Author

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK

bostedo: 8a tx-bp-dfw

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Tiny purple aster-like flowers on a shrub-like plant

Comments (6)

NHBabs z4b-5a NH

kayjones

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popmama (Colorado, USDA z5)Original Author

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK

bostedo: 8a tx-bp-dfw

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GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

popmama (Colorado, USDA z5)
Original Author