Solidago, commonly called goldenrods, is a genus of about 100[1] to 120[2] species of flowering plants

in the aster family, Asteraceae. Most are herbaceous perennial species found in open areas such as
meadows, prairies, and savannas. They are mostly native to North America, including Mexico; a few
species are native to South America and Eurasia.[1] Some American species have also been introduced
into Europe and other parts of the world.

Contents

1 Description

2 Use and cultivation

2.1 Cultivated species

2.2 Industrial use

2.3 Traditional medicine

3 Cultural significance

4 Taxonomy

4.1 Solidago and related taxa

4.2 Evolutionary relationships within Solidago

5 Diversity

6 References

7 External links

Description

European goldenrod is pollinated by Bombus cryptarum

Solidago species are perennials growing from woody caudices or rhizomes. Their stems ranges from
decumbent (crawling) to ascending or erect, with a range of heights going from 5 cm (2.0 in) to over a
meter. Most species are unbranched, but some do display branching in the upper part of the plant. Both
leaves and stems vary from glabrous (hairless) to various forms of pubescence (strigose, strigillose,
hispid, stipitate-glandular or villous). In some species, the basal leaves are shed before flowering. The
leaf margins are most commonly entire, but often display heavier serration. Some leaves may display
trinerved venation rather than the pinnate venation usual across Asteraceae.[1]
The flower heads are usually of the radiate type (typical daisy flower heads with distinct ray and disc
florets) but sometimes discoid (with only disc florets of mixed, sterile, male and bisexual types). Only ray
florets are female, others are male, hermaphroditic or entire sterile. Head involucres are campanulate
to cylindric or attenuate. Floret corollas are usually yellow, but white in the ray florets of a few species
(such as Solidago bicolor); they are typically hairless. Heads usually include between 2 and 35 disc
florets, but in some species this may go up to 60. Filaments are inserted closer to the base of the corolla
than its middle. Numerous heads are usually grouped in complex compound inflorescences where heads
are arranged in multiple racemes, panicles, corymbs, or secund arrays (with florets all on the same
side).[1]

Solidago cypselae are narrowly obconic to cylindrical in shape, and they are sometimes somewhat
compressed. They have eight to 10 ribs usually and are hairless or moderately hispid. The Pappus is very
big with barbellate bristles.[1]

Goldenrod and visiting Cerceris wasp

The many goldenrod species can be difficult to distinguish, due to their similar bright, golden-yellow
flower heads that bloom in late summer. Propagation is by wind-disseminated seeds or by spreading
underground rhizomes which can form colonies of vegetative clones of a single plant. They are mostly
short-day plants and bloom in late summer and early fall. Some species produce abundant nectar when
moisture is plentiful, or when the weather is warm and sunny.

Use and cultivation

Young goldenrod leaves are edible.[3] Native Americans used the seeds of some species for food.[4]
Herbal teas are sometimes made with goldenrod.[5]

Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) essential oil

Goldenrod often is inaccurately said to cause hay fever in humans.[6] The pollen causing this allergic
reaction is produced mainly by ragweed (Ambrosia sp.), blooming at the same time as the goldenrod
and pollinated by wind. Goldenrod pollen is too heavy and sticky to be blown far from the flowers, and
is pollinated mainly by insects.[6] Frequent handling of goldenrod and other flowers, however, can
cause allergic reactions, sometimes irritating enough to force florists to change occupation.[7]
Goldenrods are attractive sources of nectar for bees, flies, wasps, and butterflies. Honey from
goldenrods often is dark and strong because of admixtures of other nectars. However, when honey flow
is strong, a light (often water-clear), spicy-tasting monofloral honey is produced. While the bees are
ripening the honey produced from goldenrods, it has a rank odor and taste; the finished honey is much
milder.

Goldenrods are, in some places, considered a sign of good luck or good fortune.[8] They are considered
weeds by many in North America, but they are prized as garden plants in Europe, where British
gardeners adopted goldenrod as a garden subject long before Americans did. Goldenrod began to gain
some acceptance in American gardening (other than wildflower gardening) during the 1980s.

They have become invasive species in other parts of the world, including China; Solidago canadensis,
which was introduced as a garden plant in Central Europe, has become common in the wild, and in
Germany is considered an invasive species that displaces native vegetation from its natural habitat.

Goldenrod species are used as a food source by the larvae of many Lepidoptera species. The invading
larva may induce the plant to form a bulbous tissue mass called a gall around it, upon which the larva
then feeds. Various parasitoid wasps find these galls and lay eggs in the larvae, penetrating the bulb
with their ovipositors. Woodpeckers are known to peck open the galls and eat the insects in the
center.[9]

Cultivated species

Cultivated goldenrods include S. bicolor, S. caesia, S. canadensis, S. cutleri, S. riddellii, S. rigida, S. shortii,
and S. virgaurea.[10]

A number of cultivars have been selected, including several of hybrid origin. A putative hybrid with
aster, known as ×Solidaster is less unruly, with pale yellow flowers, equally suitable for dried
arrangements. Molecular and other evidence points to ×Solidaster (at least the cultivar 'Lemore') being
a hybrid of Solidago ptarmicoides and Solidago canadensis, the former now in Solidago, but likely the
"aster" in question.[11]
The cultivars 'Goldenmosa'[12] and S. × luteus 'Lemore'[13] have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's
Award of Garden Merit.