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Discover Nature: New England Asters

Clusters of bright purple flowers with dense, narrow petals surround deep yellow centers atop tall green stalks.
New England asters bloom from August through October, and contribute to the beauty of fall in Missouri.

This week on Discover Nature, we’ll look for one of Missouri’s late-blooming native wildflowers.

    

 

The New England aster is the tallest of Missouri’s native asters – growing up to eight feet – dotted with dozens of quarter-sized flower heads, usually in shades of purple, with a yellow disk in the center. 

 

Members of the Daisy family, these hardy wildflowers tend to bloom earlier than most other asters, and stay in flower for longer.  

 

Look for these flowers from August through October in bottomland prairies, or moist depressions of upland prairies, fens, bases of bluffs, stream banks, pond- and lake edges, as well as pastures, fencerows, ditches, railroads and roadsides.  

 

Many bees, flies, butterflies, and skippers visit the flowers, aiding the cross-pollination process on which these flowers depend for reproduction. Moth caterpillars and various other insects eat the leaves.  Deer and some other mammals eat the foliage, and wild turkeys eat the seeds.  

 

Learn more about Missouri’s native wildflowers that bloom in fall, with the Missouri Department of Conservation’s online Field Guide, and find places to go see Missouri’s colorful autumn landscape with their online Atlas.  

 

Discover Nature is sponsored by the Missouri Department of Conservation.

Kyle Felling’s work at KBIA spans more than three decades. In 2025, he became KBIA and KMUC's Station Manager. He began volunteering at the station while he was a Political Science student at the University of Missouri. After being hired as a full-time announcer, he served as the long-time local host of NPR’s All Things Considered on KBIA, and was Music Director for a number of years. Starting in 2010, Kyle became KBIA’s Program Director, overseeing on-air programming and operations while training and supervising the station’s on-air staff. During that period, KBIA regularly ranked among the top stations in the Columbia market, and among the most listened to stations in the country. He was instrumental in the launch of KBIA’s sister station, Classical 90.5 FM in 2015, and helped to build it into a strong community resource for classical music. Kyle has also worked as an instructor in the MU School of Journalism, training the next generation of journalists and strategic communicators. In his spare time, he enjoys playing competitive pinball, reading comic books and Joan Didion, watching the Kansas City Chiefs, and listening to Bruce Springsteen and the legendary E Street Band.
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