We made it through the extreme heat and very cool temperatures of August and have arrived at Labor Day, which is the unofficial ending of summer. There are many folks that say summer is not over until the fall equinox, which occurs this year on Sept. 22.

Mary Alice always says that summer isn’t over until she sees asters in bloom. When checking diaries from previous years, I find that the fifth of September was the earliest I ever noticed asters in bloom.

Our common aster’s scientific name is Aster novac-angliac. This flower belongs to the composite family. The common name of aster is Latin for star, referring to the flower’s star-like shape. According to a Greek legend, the aster was created out of star dust when Virgo looked down from heaven and wept.

The European aster is called both aster and starwort by the English. The star refers to the shape of the flower and wort originally meant root, a name applied to plants with healing properties.

In 1637, John Tradescant took asters from Virginia to England. They hybridized with the European starworts and were later named Michaelmas daisies because after the British finally adopted Gregory XIII’s revised calendar, the feast of St. Michael coincided with their flowering.

Michaelmas is a Christian festival held on Sept. 29 in the Catholic and Anglican churches. The Greeks and Armenian churches celebrate St. Michael on Nov. 8. In England, Michaelmas is one of the four quarter days of the year when rents and bills must be paid.

Due to this another common name for the aster is Christmas daisy. Michaelmas was the beginning of the academic year at Oxford and Cambridge, the quarterly court session and the day for debts to be settled.

The asters, which were known as the eye of Christ in France and starworts in Germany, were often burned to keep away evil spirits. The Shakers used the plant to clear their complexions. In some places, it was used as an antidote for snake bites and to drive away snakes.

It was thought that by boiling aster leaves in wine and placing them close to a hive of bees, the honey would improve.

There are more than 75 species of asters in the United States and 200 species in North America. These species are hard to tell apart but they all bloom from August through October when the first hard frost occurs.

Asters have smooth branching stems that grow from two to four feet tall. The leaves are heart-shaped, numerous and coarsely toothed. The upper leaves are smaller and tapered at the base. The flowers can be pink, pale blue, violet, or white, with a reddish or yellow disk. For identification purposes, the asters can be grouped into two groups: the purple-blue group and the white flower group.

Among the autumn-blooming wildflowers, the aster vies with the goldenrod for first place. In some places, asters dominate the roadsides and open woods.

Asters belong to the composite family which is the largest family of wildflowers. Members of this family usually have brilliantly colored ray flowers arranged around a common center or disk of tiny tubular flowers. Since most asters depend on insects for pollination, the flowers furnish an abundance of nectar for honeybees, bumblebees and other visitors.

The tiny seeds of the asters have tufts of hair, which are blown about by the wind, sometimes far away from the parent plant.

Be on the lookout for the asters; the leaves as their colors begin to change; woolly bear caterpillars crossing the roadways and early migrators, such as hawks and vultures, as they begin moving through the area. Our local landfill is a stopover for turkey vultures, and one day, I counted 85 birds circling overhead, waiting for the landfill to close so they could have a feast.

September is the time we detect the first wood smoke of the year as people start up their wood stoves and fireplaces to take the chill off inside their homes. An unidentified writer wrote the following about September.

Thunderstorms and school kids mutter.

Sweet as butter.

A soaking, and we’re not joking.

Be prepared to swelter and then run for shelter

Summer lingers, but we feel fall’s frosty fingers.

September is also the time when the sun makes it back to the equator, and This year the equinox occurs on Sept. 22 at 5:05 a.m., and we experienced the autumn equinox. When this occurred nature’s timetable marks the end of summer.

The equinox has had a profound influence on past civilizations and is still currently celebrated by many cultures. Some ancient civilizations aligned temples and pyramids with equinox sunrises and sunsets. While their exact purposes remain a debate, evidence suggests that Stonehenge in England and other sites were used as astronomical calendars for tracking seasons, agricultural planning, and religious rituals.

September is a good time to be out-of-doors, enjoying all that nature has to offer, of which the asters are close to the top of the list.

Bill Bower is a retired Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Officer. Read his blog and listen to his podcasts on the outdoors at www.onemaningreen.com.