Wild grasses turn golden toward the end of the summer, when the leaves of bald cypress trees are beginning to turn brown, and the wildflower display of April and May are increasingly distant memories. Into this goldening landscape pops a feathery lavender wildflower, Symphyotrichum praealtum. Willow aster, as it’s commonly called, is likely to first appear on the first chilly morning of the year—one of those bright blue days in October—then thrive throughout November. Like its spring aster cousin, yellowtops, willow aster doesn’t mind full sun, and even seems to prefer it, finding a perfect scaffolding at the edge of a native forest.
