ASTER AND THE BLACK MOON

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SEASONS

A total eclipse of the Harvest Moon!

By Fred Schaaf

There may be chills on August and September nights, and we may be regretting that summer is waning. But there are flowers aplenty at this time of year, and many of them have something in common Thoreau noticed. In his journal in 1853 he asked: "Do not the flowers of August and September generally resemble suns and stars — sunflowers and asters and the single flowers of the goldenrod?"

We might consider sunflowers and goldenrod (which, by the way, is confused with ragweed but is brighter and is not responsible, like ragweed, for great numbers of allergy problems). But, this time, let's focus on the usually lavender flowers whose color complements so well the great fields of goldenrod they often bloom among — let's focus on the aster.

As Thoreau well knew, the word aster is Greek for "star" — as in astronomy (study of the stars) and asteroids (little worlds so small they look "starlike" in the telescope). The flower part of these long- stalked plants do look like stars — what seem like their petals are finer and more numerous than those of daisies (another flower named for the sun — the original name was "day's-eye"; the eye of day, of course, being the sun).

In reality, the bloom of the aster is a flower head, each one of the "petals" is itself a flower.

In the aster, the "rays" of the star spread out from a central "disk" (reminiscent of a daisy's center) which is typically yellow. But the disk may turn to purple or to dark red as it gets pollinated. Not all asters have "ray" flowers that are lavender either — there are various shades of blue and purple and white.

About 150 species of aster grow in the United States, and although they are more common in the eastern half of the country, they grow throughout the western half, too. Distinguishing the different types is not always easy. The best way to do it is usually by the leaves.

Asters are most common in fields and roadsides, but some varieties thrive in swamps and woods, even down by the seashore.

August's Plentiful Shooting Stars

After an August day of looking at asters, what better way to continue the star theme than by watching for shooting stars on August nights.

There is no time of year when shooting stars—meteors—are more common than in the first half of August. The most important reason is the Perseid meteor shower. A meteor shower is an increased number of meteors all appearing to zoom out from a particular point or small area in the constellations. The great August display features meteors streaking out of a spot in the constellation Perseus, which is in the northeast around midnight but high in the north by around 3 or 4 A.M. Midnight is early enough to see quite a few Perseids, but typically you'll see many more per hour in the predawn hours.