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Has anyone else noticed that these flowers from Gerber Hill are all in the aster family? What is it about those plants and this time of year. I really don't know why so many of them have an affinity to the late season. Except that the tall ones need time to grow, and that could apply to any family. Black-eyed Sue isn't that tall, but was still hanging in.

This was an interesting patch of brown-eyed Sues, taller and more diffuse than usual. These were growing near the lower edge of the hill. There was once a series of sand ridges arrayed like waves going west from Lake Erie. You can now see where they were from the air. You can see the houses of farmers who settled the area, running in rows along those ridges. The houses were built there because it was drier land than the adjacent former swamp, and because it was less fertile. Much of that sand has now been carted off for various uses. Fortunately, the area near the Gerber farmhouse was still intact, and available to be donated for a park.

This was impossible to resist the presentation here. What a nice clump of stiff goldenrod.

Here's a late season yarrow. Ever look closely at all those little daisies? Each 'flower' a head of even smaller flowers neatly arranged in discs and rays.

Aster laevis? It used to be, but you might say it got a case of synantherism. Sound like something that would take you to the hospital? Actually, synantherology is the study of plants in the aster family. Plenty to study there! About 10% of native flora around the woprld are in the family. And with a little recent analysis, this became Symphyotrichum laeve. But we will still call it smooth aster, and mostly look for it in prairies and other open spots.