Flower:

Branching clusters of stalked flowers at the top of the stem and arising from upper leaf axils. Branches are often leafy and crowded with flowers. Flowers are 1 to 1½ inches across with 40 to 100 narrow petals (ray flowers) and a golden yellow center that turns reddish purple with age. Ray color is purple to rose pink.

The bracts (phyllaries) surrounding the base of the flower are in 3 to 5 layers, very narrow, green to purple-tinged, widely spreading, and the outer phyllaries covered in short glandular hairs. Flower stalks are up to 1½ inch long with a few narrow, leaf-like bracts below the flower. Stalks and bracts are covered in a mix of glandular and nonglandular hairs.

Leaves and stem:

Leaves are mostly lance-oblong, some widest above the middle, 1 to 4 inches long, ½ to 1 inch wide, mostly toothless, stalkless, tapering to a pointed or rounded tip, the base with a pair of lobes (auricles) that extend around the stem and clasp it. The upper surface is rough; the underside more softly hairy. Basal leaves are more spatula-shaped and wither away by flowering time along with the lower stem leaves; upper stem leaves are often densely packed. Stems are single or multiple from the base, mostly erect, stout, brown to reddish, and covered in short, spreading hairs

Fruit:

Fruit is a dry, hairy seed with a tuft of light brown hairs to carry it off in the wind.

Notes:

New England Aster is an important late-season food source for pollinators, blooming through October and even into November. Plant it in your garden and it's guaranteed you'll have a pollinator party until the last flower is wilted away. The flowers are easily distinguished from other blue-violet asters by the numerous narrow, purple rays (up to 100), golden yellow disk, and widely spreading narrow phyllaries. The leaves are vaguely similar to Purple-stemmed Aster (Symphyotrichum puniceum), which tend to have a longer taper to a sharply pointed tip and usually have a few small teeth around the edge.