CANADA GOLDENROD
Scientific Name: Solidago canadensis L.
Other Names: verge d’or du Canada, bouquets jaunes, solidage du Canada, verge d’or
Family: Composite or Aster Family (Compositae)
General Description: Perennial, reproducing by rhizomes and by seed.
Habitat: Canada goldenrod is a native plant that is found throughout Ontario in moist or dry fields and meadows, edges of forests, swamps, clearings, orchards and compost piles, and along roadsides, ponds, streams, fencerows and shorelines, and recently as a weed in cultivated fields.
Seedlings
Stems
- 20-200 cm (8-80 in.) high,
- Branching only in the upper part,
- Hairless near the base,
- Densely but very finely pubescent toward the top.
Leaves
- Numerous, sometimes crowded,
- Stalkless,
- 1 - 15 cm (2/5 - 6 in.) long,
- 1 - 22 mm (1/25 - 7/8 in.) wide,
- Lanceolate, tapering to both ends,
- Margins vary from nearly entire to usually having fine or sometimes coarse, widely-spaced teeth,
- Most with one prominent midvein on the undersurface and two distinct lateral veins that branch from it and parallel it nearly to the tip of the leaf,
- Lower and middle stem leaves of plants in thick patches usually dying and falling off by flowering time.
Flowers
- Inflorescence a broad or occasionally narrow pyramidal panicle,
- 5 - 40 cm (2 -16 in.) high and nearly as wide,
- Several to many horizontal branches, the upper sides of which carry numerous, densely-crowded small heads of golden flowers,
- Each individual flower head about 3 mm (1/8 in.) long and wide,
- Flowers from mid-July to September.
Often Confused With
It is distinguished by its creeping rhizomes, its relatively narrow leaves that are widest in the middle and taper to both ends, have two lateral veins paralleling the prominent midvein and usually have widely-spaced fine to coarse teeth, and by its usually broad, pyramidal panicle.
Caution: Goldenrod is commonly accused of being the cause of hay fever allergies for many people. But it is innocent. Goldenrod is insect-pollinated and its heavy and slightly sticky pollen does not blow in the wind. Ragweed is the usual culprit, but it has inconspicuous flowers whereas Goldenrod, which flowers at the same time, has highly conspicuous flowers and gets the blame.
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