Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds.

Time of bloom: August to October.

Seed-time: September to November.

Range: Maine and Ontario to North Dakota, southward to Georgia, Louisiana, and Kansas. Habitat: Dry or stony soil; fields, pastures, roadsides.

Fig. 300. - Smooth Aster (Aster laevis).

X 1/4.

Stem two to four feet high, rather stout, smooth and polished or often glaucous, simple or branched at the top. Leaves light green, rather thick in texture, one to four inches long, smooth and shining or covered with a bloom, entire or minutely toothed, oblong and pointed, the upper ones sessile and clasping the stem with auricled or heart-shaped base, the lower ones tapering to margined petioles which are partly clasping. Heads numerous, in slender open panicles, each about an inch broad, the rays deep violet-blue, sometimes purple; involucre bell-shaped, its bracts imbricated in several rows, smooth, acute, rigid, green-tipped. Achenes smooth, with a tawny pappus. (Fig. 300.)

Means Of Control

Enrich the ground and enable it to support plants of more worth. A cultivated crop, heavily fertilized and well tilled, followed by a clean seeding of clover or grass, will drive out this and many other weeds.