In the very place where big sage (an aster) …

… makes a sun of heat in the winter and melts the snow (bringing on summer two months early) …

…

… fleabanes and other asters shade the roots of the big sage in spring and call the bees out of the air, fertilized by the birds that feed on big sage’s late season seed, which falls on the snow and helps to melt it away.

“Aster” means “star”, but, really, it is more a situation of Sun and Moon. As these two asters intertwine…

… the big sage provides cover for deer to make their nests, while protecting the asters from hungry deer lips. In this landscape, asters rule, filling most ecological niches. It is like the finches in the Galapagos.