168 



THE INDIANA WEED BOOK. 



GROUP B. 



Here belong those weeds among our Compositae which have one 

 or more rows of conspicuous yellow rays around the margin of tho 

 head of flowers. These ray-flowers are in most species pistillate 

 and fertile, that is, producing seeds, though in some they are neutral 

 and sterile. To the group belong our weeds known as golden-rods, 

 elecampane, cup-plant, ox-eyes, cone-flowers, sunflowers, actino- 

 meris, bur-marigolds and sneezeweed. 



135. SOLIDAGO CANADENSIS L. Canada Golden-rod. (P. N. 3.) 



Stem stout, rough-hairy, 2-8 feet high; leaves alternate, lanceolate, 

 rough above, 3-nerved, pointed, the lower ones sharply toothed and stalked, 

 3-6 inches long, the upper sessile, entire. Heads very numerous on one 

 side of the spreading recurved branches of a large terminal panicle; in- 

 volucre oblong, its linear appressed bracts in several overlapping rows; 

 flowers bright yellow, the rays short, 9-15 in a single row. Achenes cyl- 

 indrical, glabrous; pappus of numerous rough, hair-like bristles. 



Abundant along fence-rows, roadsides and in old abandoned 

 fields, especially in dry upland soil. Aug. Nov. This is probably 

 the most common and widely distributed of the 30 or more golden- 

 rods recorded from the State. All are among the most handsome 

 of our autumn wild flowers, being for the most part wand plants 

 with small densely clustered yellow heads. For the botanist they 

 form a difficult group, being separated mainly by the size of the 

 heads, their arrangement in flower clusters, and by the texture 



and shape of the leaves. "Hardly 

 has the ' last rose of summer ' departed 

 when the early golden-rod appears 

 and its later sisters brighten even the 

 November landscape. Simple, hardy, 

 every-day flowers, they are full of 

 sunshine and good cheer, adding 

 brightness to the dusty wayside and 

 joy to the common paths. of life/' 



Associated with the Canada 

 golden-rod and more often found on 

 old half sterile slopes is the field 

 golden-rod (8. nemoralis Ait., Fig. 

 127.) 1-2 feet high, the stem and 

 leaves thickly clothed with short ash- 

 gray hairs, the lower leaves spoon- 



; the upper 



Fig. 127. Field golden-rod. (After Watson.) 



and entire; heads in a dense one-sided cluster, the flowers very 



