SkyBlueAster

**Description**
**(#1)The Sky Blue Aster(Aster oolentangiensis) at its full grown size is between 1 1/2 to 3' tall. The flowers themselves are about 1/2" wide, the pedals surround lots of little florets that start out yellow. The yellow core later turns red or brown.The flowers usually consist of 10-25 pedals.** **From the base of the plant there are larger leaves but as you move upward they reduce greatly in width and length. The leaves closest to the top of the plant lay flat against the stem. Th leaves near the base of the plant are larger in width and length as they extend out outward more. The flowers on the plant look like daisies, like most flowers stick straight up these plants droop over. The blooming time for these plants starts in August and goes to late October. (#1) The root system is fibrous and rhizomatous. **  ==**Reason for Prediction of Being a Sky Blue Aster   ** ==
 * In the picture above you can see that the plant pictured above closely matches up with the description of height, and the flowers match up with the estimated width of a Sky Blue Aster. Also if you look closely in the left picture above you can see that some of the cores of the flowers are starting to (#1)turn brown or red as told above in the descrition of a Sky Blue. The next way we can predict that the plants inspected are Sky Blue Asters is if you look closely in the left picture and count the pedals there is about 13 pedals, and in the description above of a Sky Blue Aster it says the (#1)flower may contain 10-25 pedals. And the last way to tell that this can be a Sky Blue Aster is the plant blooms in August and stops in late October, which is when these pictures were taken. **

**Growing Conditions**
**(#1)**<span style="color: rgb(117, 36, 194)">**Places the plant grows include mesic to dry black soil prairies, woodland borders, rocky upland woods, savannas, sandy meadows, limestone glades, clay banks, and areas along roadsides.** **The Sky Blue Aster grows best in climates that consist of full or partial sun, moderate to dry air humidity.The plant grow in rocky, sandy, and loamy like soil. To show that it was grown in this climate here are a few things about our prairie, and where the plant was found. -Hot and Humid during Summers -The plants I inspected were getting full sun. -The plants I inspected were by a stream or creek which means that the soil most likely contains sand. -It is in Iowa, which, if you look below shows that the Sky Blue Aster grows in Iowa. -Found in a the Ames High //__Prairie__//**

<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0)">Common Growin Places

 * <span style="color: rgb(125, 0, 255)">(#2)The most common places for the Sky Blue Aster to grow is in the green below, as you may have noticed the states that are green match the description of weather or humidity listed before. The Sky Blue Aster blooms in early summer to late fall. **

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Companion Plants

 * <span style="color: rgb(127, 57, 219)"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="color: rgb(93, 24, 160)">The Sky Blue Aster's companion plants include the Butterfly milkweed, Pale purple coneflower, Yellow coneflower, Big bluestem, Little Bluestem <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="color: rgb(93, 24, 160)">Indian grass, Stiff Goldenrod, Sideoats Grama, Fragrant Sumac, and the Willow -leaved Sunflower.   **

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 * Resources:
 * 1) 1 http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/skyblue_asterx.htm
 * 2) 2 http://plants.usda.gov/maps/large/SY/SYOOO.png
 * 3) 3 http://www.grownative.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=plants.plantDetail&plant_id=125