COMPOSITAE COMPOSITE FAMILY 
EARLY GOLDENROD 
Solidago juncea Ait. 
The Goldenrods are a very large genus, some species of 
which are very difficult to distinguish. Only the more common 
of the 33 species known to live in Illinois can be allowed space 
here. 
The Early Golden- 
rod frequently begins 
blooming in the latter 
part of June and con- 
tinues until September 
or later. It grows in 
either dry or moist pla- 
ces from New Bruns- 
wick to Saskatchewan 
and south to North 
Carolina and Missouri. 
The stem is 1-4 feet 
high, smooth through- 
outandratherstout and 
rigid. The leaves are 
lanceolate or oval-lan- 
ceolate, firm, smooth, 
toothed or nearly en- 
tire. The lower ones are large, sometimes 1 foot long and 2 
inches wide, and long petioled. The upper are much smaller, 
sessile and entire. 
The heads are small and numerous mostly on the upper sides 
of the short recurved branches of the ample spreading panicle. 
The 7-12 yellow rays are small and the perfect disk flowers have 
tubular corollas. The bracts of the involucre are oblong and not 
at all spreading. The akenes are smooth or nearly so. 
The Broad-leaved Goldenrod, Solidago latifolia L., grows in rich 
woods and on wooded banks and blooms from late July to September. 
The smooth stem is somewhat angled and zigzag and grows 1-3 feet 
high. The leaves are broadly ovate, very strongly and sharply toothed 
and pointed at both ends. All are thin and usually all are petioled, 
with the petioles of the lower leaves winged. The heads are in short 
clusters in the leaf axils and sometimes also in longer terminal clusters, 
The bracts of the involucre are obtuse to acutish and appressed. 
There are only 3 or 4 yellow ray flowers, and the akenes are hairy. 
347 
