COMPOSITE FAMILY 



COMPOSITE COMPOSITE FAMILY 



Solidago tenuifolia, Pursh. 



Yellow 



Slender-leaved Goldenrod. 

 August-October 



Solidago: for derivation see altissima. 

 Tenuifolia: Latin for very narrow leaves. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: dry or damp soil. 



THE PLANT: erect, seldom over one and one half feet high; 

 the stem paniculately much branched above, without 

 hairs. 



THE LEAVES: alternate, smaller leaves clustered in the 

 axils; narrowly linear; one inch to three inches long; 

 glandular dotted; acuminate at the apex; narrowed at the 

 base; stemless; entire; one-nerved or with an additional 

 pair of faint nerves on the sides. 



THE FLOWER HEADS: very small, numerous, crowded in 

 the dense modified cyme; the involucre oblong bell-shaped; 

 its bracts oblong. 



THE FRUIT: achenes; the pappus of bristles. 



This is the second of the low, numerously branched and 

 slender-leaved, wiry Goldenrods. Mr. Bicknell describes it 

 as "perplexingly variable" for some coarser forms appear 

 " quite intermediate with the graminifolia." It is a slightly 

 fragrant species, with very narrow, linear, minutely dotted 

 leaves, taper-pointed and usually one-ribbed. 



Commonly in the axils of the main stem leaves are 

 bunches of smaller leaves, but the shorter leaves of the 

 branches have no such bundles. The involucre of the 

 flower heads is bell-shaped, its bracts firm, oblong and 

 glutinous, 



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