COMPOSITAE 



COMPOSITE FAMILY 



STIFF GOLDENROD 



Solidago r'lgida 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. 



The stem is stout, 1-5 

 feet high and densely 

 covered with fine whitish 

 hairs. The leaves are 

 thick, flat and rigid, and 

 usually rather rough on 

 both sides. The lowest 

 leaves are petioled and 

 may be i 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. The akenes are smooth 

 and io-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 Hills — John Greenleaf Whittier 



349 



