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Sea aster

 

 

In the home garden beds cultivated asters flourish, on the seashore the sea asters, the only indigenous species in Estonian nature, still bloom. We are used to the luxuriant garden aster flowers; the diameter of the sea aster flower is only a few centimetres. Probably the sea aster belongs to the family only because of some similarities.

 

The sea aster, held to be a perennial,  grows on the sea coast both of the islands and the mainland, preferring soil permeated by salty sea water; with high water levels we see flowering plants growing „feet in water“. Tasting a leaf leaves a salty taste in the mouth from the cell sap.

 

The blue-violet ray florets are in a single row, the disk flowers in the centre are yellow. The leaves of the plant are narrow and fleshy, similar to other seashore plants that, growing in a „desert climate“, have to store water in reserve. The sea aster grows as a pretty and sturdy stand with some ten flowering stems that end their flowering in September.