COMPOSITE FAMILY 



COMPOSITE COMPOSITE FAMILY 



Solidago. 



Of the fifty-six Goldenrods listed in Gray's Manual, 7th 

 edition, probably seventeen distinct species have been 

 found on Nantucket. Of these the most characteristic and 

 the most frequent are the following: 



COMPOSITE COMPOSITE FAMILY 



Solidago altissima, L. 



Yellow Tall Goldenrod, 



Double Goldenrod, 

 August-September Yellow-weed. 



Solidago: Latin meaning to join or make whole, in allusion 



to reputed vulnerary qualities. 

 Altissima: Latin for " highest." 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: dry ground, roadsides, also 

 "along thickets, near low grounds." 



THE PLANT: erect, three feet high and frequently higher; 

 the stem having ashy-grey, soft, short hairs, stout. 



THE LEAVES: alternate; lanceolate; sometimes five inches 

 long; thickish; having short hairs which may be soft or 

 somewhat dry above, soft hairs beneath; nearly entire or 

 more or less toothed. 



THE FLOWER HEADS: crowded in recurved racemes, form- 

 ing dense, high, broadly pyramidal panicles; the bracts of 

 the involucre linear. 



THE FRUIT: achenes; pappus of bristles. 



This Goldenrod is particularly fond of growing in close 

 masses in " thickets near low ground." It is one of the 

 tallest of the Nantucket Goldenrods, one of the earliest to 

 bloom and one of the first to disappear. Its distinguish- 



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