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An inland Estonian may well ask: what, an aster in July, and isn't it a garden flower anyway?

 

The sea aster grows at the sea shore of the mainland coast as well as the islands. It prefers a soil impregnated with salt water, and with a high water level we can see the plant growing "feet in water“.

 

We are used to the luscious blooms of the garden asters; the diameter of the sea aster flowers is only a few centimetres.

There is a single row of pale purple-blue ray florets; the disc florets in the centre are yellow. The leaves are narrow and rather fleshy, similar to other seashore plants that grow in a “desert climate“ and have to be economical with water reserves.