COMPOSITAE COMPOSITE FAMILY 
STIFF GOLDENROD 
Solidago rigida L. 
This beautiful and striking species is common on prairies and 
in dry gravelly or rocky soil from Massachusetts to Saskatchewan 
and south to Georgia, Texas and Colorado. It blooms from 
August to October. 
; AW, 
The stem is stout, I-5 Qe: NNN 5 
feet high and densely LOH Ff sites MA) 
ae ee FEY WW Wi 
d hf h h / y ws WH 
covered with fine whitis < a\ y VEZ 
hairs. The leaves are ay. : \ eA 
. . . SS Y tay 0 — y L2-Z 
thick, flat and rigid, and SRN Val p is 
¢ 
usually rather rough on NW 
both sides. The lowest WS 
leaves are petioled and 
may be 1 foot long and 
3 inches wide. 
The relatively large heads are many 
flowered and are in a terminal, more or 
less flat-topped inflorescence. The bracts 
of the broadly bell-shaped involucre are 
oblong and the outer ones are hairy. The 
6-10 yellow ray flowers are rather large 
and conspicuous. Theakenes aresmooth 
and 10-15-nerved. 
The Common Goldenrod, Solidago can- 
adensis L., is very common and quite 
variable. It blooms from July to Sep- 
tember. The stem is rather slender, 1-5 
feet high and mostly smooth but some- 
what hairy near the top. The leaves are 
narrowly lanceolate, thin and usually less 
than one-half inch wide. They are smooth 
above, commonly somewhat hairy on the 
veins below, and usually are sharply toothed though sometimes entire. 
The tiny heads are crowded on the spreading branches of a large 
panicle. There are 4-6 very small yellow rays. The greenish straw- 
colored bracts of the involucre are very thin and narrow. 
Along the roadside, like the flowers of gold 
That tawny Incas for their gardens wrought, 
Heavy with sunshine droops the goldenrod, 
Among the Hillh—JounN GREENLEAF WHITTIER 
349 
