This cluster of Frost Aster shows the various stages of life of a flower from bud (far bottom left) to withering petals (top right) with mature bloom in the middle.

Like people, each flower, at a given moment is unique in appearance, experience and stage of life. Portraits of individual blossoms show their individuality. One has lost the youthful vitality with its receding brown *carpel and sparse bent petals. The other flower is at its peak with bright golden center and prolific array of petals.

*Britannica defines “Carpel, (as) one of the leaflike, seed-bearing structures that constitute the innermost whorl of a flower. One or more carpels make up the pistil. Fertilization of an egg within a carpel by a pollen grain from another flower results in seed development within the carpel.