This is aster season and lots of species are in full flower. At Black Earth Rettenmund Prairie I saw smooth aster (first photo; Aster laevis) and silky aster (Aster sericeus) in full bloom.
Smooth aster is fairly showy. It usually stands tall and produces lots of flowers. It also grows well in native plant gardens, which makes it a good candidate for cultivation. It is found in dry mesic to mesic prairies, and is one of the foundation plants in any prairie planting.
Silky aster is a real dry prairie plant, growing well on bluff prairies and various other dry sites. It gets its common name from the "silky" sheen of the underside of its leaves. According to Cochrane and Iltis, this species is less common than it once was, surviving primarily on "goat" prairies. However, it does do well in plantings. Saturday I saw some nice stands in the dry-mesic planted prairie at Goose Pond.
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