Gulf of Saint Lawrence #1: Introduction and Plants

The Gulf of Saint Lawrence is the world's largest estuary. It is the outlet of North America's great lakes located around Quebec. It is a semi–enclosed sea, covering an area of about and containing of water (including the St. Lawrence estuary). It opens to the Atlantic Ocean through the Cabot Strait (104 km wide and 480 m at its deepest) and the Strait of Belle Isle (17 km wide and 60 m at its deepest).

The Gulf of Saint Laurence is also home to a variety of plant species. One endangered plant species that calls The Gulf of Saint Lawrence its home is the St. Lawrence aster (Symphyotrichum laurentianum). It is a coastal or salt marsh plant which finds refuge on very few shores in New Brunswick. It is a small aster, varying from as small as five centimeters to a maximum of 30 cm in height. It has smooth fleshy leaves, typical of many of the plants that grow in a coastal or saline environment. The Gulf of Saint Lawrence aster is unusual among the asters in that it seems to lack petals. In fact, what we think of as aster petals are actually tiny individual flowers called ray flowers. A cluster of a second kind of tiny flower, called tube flowers, forms the centre of the aster blossoms in what often resembles a small button. The Gulf of St. Lawrence aster has only these tube flowers (and perhaps a few rudiments of ray flowers), surrounded by bristles, which gives it the appearance of a small, white to pinkish -coloured paint brush. These unique flowers appear in late August or early September.

Other plant life is generally restricted to the mixed deciduous and coniferous forest growing near the gulf.

 48°41'22.26"N
 61°11'2.01"W