900 MISC. PUBLICATION 4 2 3, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



dry ledges of cliffs, May to October. Colorado to Texas and southern 

 Arizona. 



17. SOLIDAGO. Goldenrod 



Perennial herbs; leaves alternate, usually narrow, entire or toothed; 

 heads small, radiate, yellow, in usually racemiform or cymose panicles, 

 often secund on the branches ; involucre narrow, the phyllaries more or 

 less graduate, usually thin and dry, sometimes with herbaceous tips; 

 achenes short; pappus of capillary bristles. 



Some of the species are reputed to be poisonous to livestock, especi- 

 ally to sheep. The leaves of S. missouriensis are reported to be eaten 

 as a salad by the Indians of northern Arizona. 



Key to the species 



1. Heads in small rounded cymose clusters at tips of the branches and branchlets; 

 rays small, inconspicuous, more numerous than the disk flowers; plant 

 glabrous, rather tall, usually with numerous semierect branches, uniformly 

 leafy; leaves linear or narrowly lance-linear, entire, 3-ribbed, not coriaceous. 



11. S. OCCIDENTALIS. 



1 . Heads otherwise arranged, or else the plants low and cespitose, with coriaceous 



leaves; rays fewer than the disk flowers (2). 



2. Heads subcylindric, in dense flatfish fastigiate cymes; leaves coriaceous; 



stems low, cespitose from a branched caudex (3) . 



3. Leaves 3-nerved and reticulate, the lower ones oblanceolate or linear- 



oblanceolate, 2.5 to 7 mm. wide 9. S. petradoria. 



3. Leaves 1-nerved, narrowly linear, the lower ones about 1 mm. wide. 



10. S. GRAMINEA. 



2. Heads not cylindric, racemose or panicled, sometimes few and glomerate or 

 cymose, never in dense fastigiate cymes; leaves not definitely coriaceous; 

 stems not cespitose from a branched caudex (4). 



4. Stem glabrous or sometimes loosely villous, never densely puberulous (5). 

 5. Heads smaller (involucre 3 to 5 mm. high) , secund on the spreading, 



recurving, or sometimes erect branches of the usually pyramidal 



panicle 3. S. missouriensis. 



5. Heads larger (involucre 4 to 6 mm. high), glomerate, racemose, or in a 

 narrow thyrse, not secund on the branches; high montane (6). 

 6. Phyllaries linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, acuminate to acute, thin; 

 leaves villous-ciliate especially toward the base_ 1. S. ciliosa. 

 6. Phyllaries oblong, obtuse to acutish, firm; leaves not ciliate. 



2. S. DECTTMBENS. 



4. Stem densely puberulous or glandular-puberulous, sometimes (in S. sparsi- 



flora) sparsely incurved-puberulous (7). 



7. Leaves very numerous and nearly uniform, only gradually reduced 



above, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, gradually acuminate, strongly 



triplinerved, usually sharply serrate, sometimes entire (8). 



8. Involucre 3 to 5 mm. high 4. S. altissima. 



8. Involucre 2 to 3 mm. high 5. S. canadensis. 



7. Leaves comparatively few and usually distinctly dimorphous (the basal 



leaves much larger than the middle and upper stem leaves and 

 distinctly petioled) or, if numerous and nearly uniform, then blunt 

 or merely acute, either feather-veined or triplinerved (9) . 



9. Phyllaries, at least the outer ones, with definite herbaceous or sub- 



herbaceous tips, densely puberulous or stipitate-glandular; leaves 

 nearly uniform, the middle and upper ones elliptic to ovate- 

 elliptic, usually 1 to 2.5 cm. wide, feather-veined or obscurely 



triplinerved 8. S. wrightii. 



9. Phyllaries without definite herbaceous tips (sometimes obscurely 

 greenish above), glabrous or rarely slightly puberulous; middle 

 and upper stem leaves usually much smaller than the basal ones, 

 mostly lanceolate to linear or spatulate, seldom as much as 

 1 cm. wide, usually triplinerved (10). 



