Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

TALL GOLDENROD

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Solidago altissima L.

[=Solidago canadensis L. var. scabra (Muhl. ex Willd.) T. & G.]

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Chase County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 20-80 inches

Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family

Flowering Period: August, September,October

Stems:

Erect, usually uniformly short hairy, sometimes glabrescent proximally.

Leaves:

Basal and lower cauline usually withering early; petiole absent or nearly so; blade oblanceolate, 4 to 6 inches long, 3/5 to 4/5 inch wide, firm, base tapered, margins entire to serrate, distinctly 3-nerved, tip acute to acuminate, lower surface strigose, upper surface scabrous, hairs prominently thickened basally; middle and upper cauline leaves oblanceolate to lanceolate, 1 to 6 inches long, 1/5 to 1 inch wide, much reduced above.

Inflorescences:

Panicle-like array of heads, pyramidal or sometimes conic, tip sometimes nodding. Peduncles 1/25 to 1/8 inch. Involucres narrowly bell-shaped, 1/12 to 1/8 inch. Phyllaries lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, tips obtuse to acute.

Flowers:

Ray florets 10-17, yellow, ligule 1/10 to 1/6 inch. Disk florets 3-9, yellow, tubular, 1/10 to 1/8 inch.

Fruits:

Achenes tan to brown, obconic to cylindric, .04 to .08 inch, minutely strigose; pappus of outer scales and inner white bristles, 1/10 to 1/8 inch.

Habitat:

Tallgrass, mixed-grass, and shortgrass prairies, ravines, flood plains, pastures, old fields, disturbed sites.

Distribution:

Statewide

Origin:

Native

Comments:

Though very similar to Solidago canadensis, S. altissima has relatively larger heads and gray-green herbage compared to the smaller heads and darker green herbage of S. canadensis. Solidago, whole or sound, alluding to its reputed medicinal value, and altissima, very tall.

Tall goldenrod