By Any Other Name
SURROUNDING THE SMALL village in north-central Michigan where I spent my youth are acres of farmsteads being reclaimed by natural forces, victims of changing agricultural practices and the poor, tired soils inherent to the region. Yet through the openness of the fields and meadows in that era I came to appreciate the autumn-blossoming members of the Asteraceae, the daisy family, and also what we associate with them: cooling temperatures, a flickering cacophony of pollinating insects and the transitions of our deciduous trees to a sizzling blaze of leaf color.
But before we carry on. It must also be recognized that many of the finest garden plants formerly known as returned from finishing schools in Europe, being sent there from our prairies and meadows more than a century ago. It is now considered a rather difficult task to put proper species names on many of the iconic plants we grow, they have been so refined and hybridized. Yet, by any other name . . .
