292 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Maryland Golden Aster 

 Chrysopsis mariana (Linnaeus) Elliott 



Plate 233b 



Stems stout, loosely hairy, usually more than one from a stout, perennial 

 root, nearly erect or ascending, 1 to 2\ feet high and corymbosely branched 

 at the summit. Upper leaves oblong to lanceolate, pointed or blunt, 

 sessile, 1 to 2 inches long; the lower leaves oblanceolate or spatulate and 

 narrowed into petioles, usually blunt, 2 to 4 inches long, one-half to 1 inch 

 wide. Heads of flowers usually numerous, bright yellow, three-fourths to 

 1 inch broad on glandular peduncles; involucres hemispheric, the bracts 

 glandular, pointed and viscid-pubescent. 



In dry or sandy soil, southern New York to Pennsylvania, Florida and 

 Louisiana. Flowering in August and September. 



THE GOLDENRODS 



Solidago 



The Goldenrods comprise a large genus of more than one hundred and 

 twenty-five species, all but a few native of North America. In New York 

 there are found about thirty species of this group. They are perennial, 

 erect herbs, often simple or with few branches; alternate leaves which are 

 either toothed or entire, and numerous small heads of both tubular and 

 ray flowers, or rarely whitish flowers, in terminal or axillary panicles, thyrsi, 

 or cymose-corymbose or capitate clusters. The involucre of each head is 

 oblong or narrowly bell-shaped and composed of bracts overlapping each 

 other in several series, the outer ones successively shorter. Disk flowers 

 usually all perfect, that is, with both stamens and pistils, their corollas 

 tubular and five-lobed; ray flowers arranged in one series and pistillate. 

 Achenes in fruit smooth or angled and usually ribbed. Pappus of numerous, 

 hairlike, rough or nearly smooth, white or slightly tawny bristles. 



The amateur botanist may experience some difficulty in the use of the 

 following key to the New York species of Goldenrod, since it is practically 



