Great Allegheny Passage Bike Trail: Don Croner’s Wanders on the Great Allegheny Passage Bike Trail | Flora

GAPERs on the trail after Labor Day will be rewarded with numerous displays of asters, perennial flowering plants belonging to the daisy family Asteraceae, known for their vivid flowers and late blooming period. All of these asters are natives of North America, and they claim their rightful place along the GAP after dominant invasives like dandelion, garlic mustard, dame’s rocket, and others have shed their flowers and hung their heads for the season. The name "aster" comes from the Greek word for "star", the shape of their flower heads. Many once belonged to the genus Aster, but most North American species have been reclassified. The lovely azure aster was once Aster azureus but is now Symphyotrichum oolentangiense. This plant thrives on the edge of the GAP and is a dominant Autumn plant in some areas. The big leaf aster, Eurybia macrophylla, is less common on the verges of the GAP but is easily found in adjacent hardwood forests. This delicate beauty is worth looking for. The gorgeous blue wood aster is another plant worth pursuing, although it is a bit more shy and elusive than its cousins. The bog aster (Symphyotrichum boreale), as the name implies, can be found in bogs, wet meadows, and on the edges of swamps, along the GAP. The mountain aster (Oclemena acuminata) occurs in well-drained hardwood forests throughout the Eastern United States. And don’t forget to look for the awl aster, Symphyotrichum pilosum.