Photo by George Seiffert
New England Aster (Symphyotrichum Novae-Angliae)
The New England aster is a hub species, being visited by and supporting an extremely high number of critter types—insect, bird, and mammal. An estimated 100–200 insect species alone rely on this plant. In New England, it is especially important in the fall, where it provides one of the few late-season pollen and nectar sources for bees and Lepidoptera, including monarchs migrating south. In early spring, deer and rabbits browse on the emerging shoots. In spring and summer, its leaves and stems provide food and/or a nursery platform not just to moths and butterflies, but also to aphids, native bees, leafhoppers, leaf beetles, sawflies, gall midges, and others.
Some, like the pearl crescent butterfly, lay their eggs only on asters. In winter, the stalks, stems, and leaf litter provide homes for various insects, while the seeds feed mice and overwintering birds like the goldfinch and junco.
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What do you love about this particular creature?
What do they reveal to you about God and our faith?
Imagine a meadow full of purple New England asters, alive with monarch butterflies, alighting to feed as they wind their way towards the oyamel forests of central Mexico. This speaks of God. In God’s world, there is a place for all. Each creature is essential. The work and life of each sustains the work and life of all. There is beauty and order, joy and sweetness. Places seemingly far away—Mexico and the New England states—are, in truth, deeply and utterly connected. Death/suffering/decay and life sustain each other. In God’s world, there is enough for all. And conversely, in the world of Creation, God is enough for us. As Francis of Assisi taught us in his “Praises of God,” the very belovedness of Creation tells us, “You are all I need.” Is this what Jesus meant when he told us about the lilies of the field?
Author - Gaen Murphree
Writer and climate activist Gaen Murphree lives in Middlebury, Vermont, where her great delight this past summer was seeing hundreds of tadpoles swimming in the hand-dug ponds in her backyard.
God of loving abundance, Creator of this glorious purple flower that generously, across seasons, and in so many ways sustains and connects hundreds of other life forms, help us too to be sustaining of and generous with all creation, so that all may live together, fed and sheltered, in the beauty and marvelously intricate order you have created. And in the same ways that you feed and protect and connect all creatures, help us know that you are all we need, so that along with the asters, monarchs, mice, and goldfinches, we too may live and act to glorify your name.