White woodland asters, (top two) such as these, are very common along the roadside in The Parklands, although these were found growing along the road leading into Draper Field. I haven’t seen any New Enland asters in Hopedale this year (although I’ve often seem them behind my house) so I took the picture of the one here (bottom) in front of the new Milford cat shelter on 140. There are some that look quite a bit like New England asters along Hopedale Pond but I think they’re actually purple-stemmed asters. This is a good example of
confusion in common names for plants. In the Audubon Field Guide to New England the purple-stemmed aster (Aster puniceus) is also known as bristly aster and swamp aster. However, the Audubon field guide to North American Wildflowers doesn’t list a purple-stemmed aster but it does have a bristly aster, aka stiff aster. This bristly aster isn’t the same as the one listed in the Field Guide to New England, though. It’s scientific name is Aster linariifolius.