COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY) 



427 



Time of bloom : Late July to October. 



Seed-time: September to November. 



Range: New Brunswick to the Northwest Territory, southward to 



Florida, Missouri, and Nebraska. 

 Habitat : Rich, moist soil ; damp fields and meadows, sides of 



streams and ditches. 



A beautiful plant but a bad weed, usually growing in large 

 patches, formed by means of its long, creeping rootstocks. Stem 

 erect, two to four feet tall, slightly angled 

 and ridged, much branched and bushy. 

 Leaves alternate, lance-shaped to linear, one 

 to four inches long but only a quarter- 

 inch wide or less, three- to five-nerved, 

 minutely rough-hairy on the edges and on 

 the under side of the nerves, pointed at 

 both ends, entire, sessile. Heads in many 

 dense, corymbose, small clusters at the 

 ends of the short, leafy branches, forming 

 altogether a large, flat-topped cluster; the 

 heads are large for Goldenrod, about a 

 quarter-inch high, deep yellow, fragrant, 

 with many more rays than disk-florets, both 

 kinds fertile ; bracts of the involucre oblong 

 and somewhat viscid. Achenes broadest 

 at the top, downy-hairy, with fine, bristly 

 pappus. The Goldenrods frequently serve 

 as hosts for several species of mildew and 

 rust, which makes them still more undesir- 

 able as neighbors to plants of better quality. 

 (Fig. 297.) 



FIG. 297. Narrow- 

 leaved Goldenrod (Soli- 

 dago graminif olid). X J. 



Means of control 



The creeping rootstocks are horizontal and not far below the 

 surface, and may be destroyed by shallow fall plowing, which ex- 

 poses them to alternate freezing and thawing and to shrivel in sun 

 and wind. Better drainage helps in keeping the ground free from 

 new invasion. Of course all flowering stalks should be cut when 

 the plants are in first bloom, in order to prevent seed development. 



