Summer Flowers of the High Alps

The beautiful little Alpine Aster is found all over the Alps. It flowers in July, August, and September, but occasionally it may be found in bloom even as early as May. It grows in dry Alpine pastures, sunny meadows, and rocky places, not infrequently in company with the Edelweiss, between 4000 and 9000 feet; in a few places it extends much lower. The plant consists of a rosette of woolly tufted leaves, with a central stem bearing the solitary flower-head. In the higher regions the flower-stem is short, perhaps only 4 inches in length, but nearer the plains it may be 8 or 9 inches. In any case, however, the flower-head is large, an inch or two in diameter, and conspicuous on account of the broad purple ray florets, which contrast strongly with the golden yellow centre. The Alpine Aster is very widely distributed, being found in Northern Asia, Arctic America, and in most of the mountain ranges of Central and Southern Europe, but not in the far North.

Closely resembling this plant is the Alpine Fleabane (Erigeron alpina). It has narrower ray florets, which are arranged in several rows and not in a single row like those of the Alpine Aster, and a branched flower-stem bearing several separate flower-heads. The much rarer Aster Amellus differs from the Alpine Aster in the possession of a branched flower-stem and blue, not purple, ray florets.