Last weekend I decided to take a little trip into the woods in the Gothe State Forest. It’s an interesting forest because it includes several different types of ecosystems inside it’s borders. Part of the forest is located right behind my property, and I love to go out there to walk and take photos in our sandhills habitat, but over the weekend I decided to try out a different part of the forest where the conditions were swampy. Unfortunately, I didn’t see much for wildlife except for a young doe white tailed deer as I drove through my own neighborhood on the way home, but the trip was a bonanza for plants. And besides, any day spent outdoors walking in the woods is never bad!

One of the prettiest plants I saw out in the swampy areas of Gothe was the Elliott’s aster (Symphyotrichum elliottii), which is a perineal herb in the aster family (same family as sunflowers and tickseeds). It’s a native to the southeastern United States and grows mainly in coastal areas from the Carolinas, throughout most of Florida (except the extreme western panhandle) and Louisiana. In it’s home range, it’s a fairly common plant and can be found growing along roadside ditches, at pond and lake edges, in swamps and marshes, and in moist areas in the pine flatwoods. Some people also use it to border water gardens or to decorate wet parts of their yards. If used that way, people do need to watch it closely and keep it in check though, since it can spread aggressively via rhizomes and quickly overwhelm other plants in the garden.

Although Elliott’s aster likes moist soil, it doesn’t like areas that frequently flood and leave it in standing water for long periods. It also doesn’t tolerate salt or brackish water, and in fact even gets burned by salt spray, so it’s definitely not a beach plant. In addition to moist soil, this aster also requires plenty of direct sunlight. If planted in areas with too much shade, the plant has a tendency to fall over and make a messy tangle. The area I was in was a pine flatwoods ecosystem, and this plant was growing in most of the sunny patches along side the narrow road that ran through the area. Most of the road sides are wet ditches, so it’s a perfect place for these beautiful asters. Some of the patches were quite large and since they were in full bloom, they were very impressive.

Even though it’s well into fall now, and most of our summer and early fall wildflowers are either completely gone or fading fast, this was actually the ideal time to be out in the woods for viewing Elliott’s asters. These flowers begin to bloom in the middle of fall and by now are in their full bloom. They will continue to bloom throughout the winter and into the early spring, although not nearly as impressively as they are right now. I was actually pleasantly surprised to find such gorgeous flowers so late in the year. And not only are they pretty to look at, but they have a pleasant fragrance as well. The fragrance is very attractive to many of the area pollinators including honey bees, bumblebees, wasps, bee flies, and a host of butterflies and moths. Since most of our other flowers have faded, these asters are a very important source of nutrition for these insects right now. As the flowers go to seed the seeds will also feed wild turkeys, bobwhite quail, and a number of other resident and migratory birds. And because this plant stays green throughout the winter, it also provides forage for local deer and cottontail rabbits.

I hadn’t ever been into that part of the forest before, and I wasn’t sure what I was going to find out there, but needless to say, I was not disappointed. I had hoped to see a bit more wildlife (I did find one honey bee in the asters and heard a barred owl calling), but besides the asters there were some other interesting plants that I will talk about in future episodes. All in all, an interesting, educational, and beautiful way to spend a lovely fall afternoon. Would you have enjoyed an afternoon like this?

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