Description: Numerous purple-violet flowers with distinctive orange centers grow on a branching stalk at the top of the plant. These perennials are up to 4 feet tall, with dense leaves covered by bristly hairs. The late-blooming wildflowers attract just about every insect active in late summer, including butterflies, moths, honeybees, bumblebees, halictid bees, hoverflies and various other flies, beetles. These flowers are my favorite for color contrast. The beautiful purple rays offset with the brilliant deep orange-yellow center provides the perfect color backdrop for just about any insect photograph.
Bloom time: From August through October.

Butterflies, bumblebees and honeybees love this flower. These pictures were taken where it grows wild, in the forest preserves near Chicago, Illinois. There are quite a few cultivated versions of this plant available for home gardens. Likes moist, well-drained soil, grows best in full sun. Mix with goldenrod or native grasses for a stunning Autumn display.

• 'Purple Dome' is a compact, bushy version with very dark purple flowers, sometimes double. Blooms September - October. Good cut flower, grows in sun or light shade.

• 'Lachsglut' has large, stunning hot pink flowers. Grows to 4 feet in full sun.

Ethnobotanic: A decoction of the plant has been used in the treatment of weak skin (Moerman 1998). A poultice has been used in the treatment of pain, fevers, and diarrhea.  New England aster is known for attracting butterflies and moths to areas where it is found growing. This is a good bee plant providing nectar in the autumn. Most species in this genus seem to be immune to the predications of rabbits

New England aster (Aster novae-angliae) is a perennial with several erect stems in clumps, stems 0.8 to 2 meters, densely spreading pubescent, thirty or more nodes below the branches of the inflorescence (Radford, Ahles & Bell 1968). The leaves are lanceolate to elliptic lanceolate, two to nine centimeters long and one to two centimeters wide. The disc flowers are yellow, hermaphrodite (having both male and female organs) and are pollinated by bees, butterflies, flies, beetles and moths. Aster novae-angliae ranges from Quebec to Alberta, south to North Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico (Steyermark 1963). For current distribution, please consult the Plant profile page for this species on the PLANTS Web site.