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 F 
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.) 
AY 
"aif 
Vi ive 
Ruy 
Fig. 297. — Narrow- 
leaved Goldenrod (Soli- 
dago graminifolia). X%. 
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. 
