
{"id":21859,"date":"2011-11-10T11:00:48","date_gmt":"2011-11-10T16:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=21859"},"modified":"2011-11-10T11:47:57","modified_gmt":"2011-11-10T16:47:57","slug":"flora-more-than-%e2%80%9cpeak%e2%80%9d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/11\/10\/flora-more-than-%e2%80%9cpeak%e2%80%9d\/","title":{"rendered":"FLORA: More than \u00e2\u20ac\u0153peak\u00e2\u20ac\u009d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ken Moore<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Flora Columnist<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Exploring my favorite power line right-of-ways last Saturday, still chasing after the elusive \u00e2\u20ac\u0153peak\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of fall color, I was surprised to find colorful wildflowers following the recent frosts. <\/p>\n<p>Flowering since mid-September, one of my favorite fall flowers is frost aster, Aster pilosus, more correctly, <em>Symphyotrichum pilosum<\/em>. Its white-flowered stems are scattered freely about my yard and vigorous clumps, appearing like tiny shrubs, are still evident along rural roadsides.<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_21860\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21860\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2011\/11\/10\/flora-more-than-%e2%80%9cpeak%e2%80%9d\/frost-aster\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-21860\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/frost-aster.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"frost-aster\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21860\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/frost-aster.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/frost-aster-113x150.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/frost-aster-84x113.jpg 84w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/frost-aster-75x100.jpg 75w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-21860\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">In spite of frost, frost asters continue to sparkle along roadsides. Photo by Ken Moore <\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nChapel Hill resident Mickey Jo Sorrel selected frost aster to study as her project for the N.C. Botanical Garden\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fall flora class. The class projects included a challenge to define the selected native plant with a haiku. Mickey Jo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s haiku shows that she truly understands the plant.<\/p>\n<p><em>Scraggly, nondescript,<br \/>\nBut the meek shall inherit.<br \/>\nMust resist weeding.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Beginning as a winter basal rosette of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153scraggly, nondescript\u00e2\u20ac\u009d leaves, Mickey Jo does \u00e2\u20ac\u0153resist weeding\u00e2\u20ac\u009d it from her garden, knowing in advance that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the meek shall inherit.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Common frost aster thrives throughout the challenging growing season to dominate entire fields in the fall with a layer of snow-white flowers, appearing like frost on chilly mornings. Mickey Jo likes to make certain she always has some in her garden.<\/p>\n<p>Make note here not to confuse diminutive frost asters with the eye-catching sea myrtle, <em>Baccharis halimifolia<\/em>. This large shrub has suddenly burst onto the roadside scene with billowy masses of white. (See Flora: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Plant that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on the move,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Nov. 8, 2007) We are not seeing flowers; we are seeing masses of white seed heads, each tiny seed bearing little white plumes awaiting a wind for transport to faraway destinations. <\/p>\n<p>This plant of the coastal salt marshes was not so locally common three decades ago. Now it is aggressively invading roadsides and other disturbed areas at an alarming rate. Travelers to and from coastal areas have helped spread this opportunistic plant inland along highway corridors. Once established, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s almost impossible for other native plants to become established. <\/p>\n<p>Now back to my recent power-line adventure: More impressive to me than the late flowering of the asters was the diversity of pollinating insects. One would have thought the recent freezes would have eliminated this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s populations. <\/p>\n<p>While taking a closer look at brilliant violet-hued, big-flowered asters, <em>Aster grandiflorus<\/em> (still not used to the new name, <em>Symphyotrichum grandiflorum<\/em>), I counted no fewer than six different insects vigorously visiting the flower heads.<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_21861\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21861\" style=\"width: 350px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2011\/11\/10\/flora-more-than-%e2%80%9cpeak%e2%80%9d\/buckeye-on-aster\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-21861\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/buckeye-on-aster.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"buckeye-on-aster\" width=\"350\" height=\"416\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21861\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/buckeye-on-aster.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/buckeye-on-aster-113x134.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/buckeye-on-aster-95x113.jpg 95w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/buckeye-on-aster-84x100.jpg 84w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-21861\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This common buckeye survived frosts to visit a colorful large-flowered aster.  Photo by Ken Moore <\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nAmong the visiting insects were solitary bee, honeybee, thread-waisted wasp and a common buckeye butterfly. The buckeye is reported to be migrating south because it can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t survive freezing temperatures. Well now, this one has survived, though it did appear to have had several rough nights. It was quite lively in the afternoon sun however, and the experience made me pause to marvel at the perfectly aligned seasonal cycles of flowers and their partner insects. I wonder if those same insects find shelter among the flowers that visit.<\/p>\n<p>Whether or not you have a favorite power line to walk, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still time to get out for fall color with flower and insect surprises along the way.<\/p>\n<p><em>Email Ken Moore at flora@carrborocitizen.com. Find previous Ken Moore Citizen columns at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/flora\/\">The Annotated Flora<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Exploring my favorite power line right-of-ways last Saturday, still chasing after the elusive \u00e2\u20ac\u0153peak\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of fall color, I was surprised to find colorful wildflowers following the recent frosts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":21861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-flora"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21859"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21865,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21859\/revisions\/21865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}