Solidago gigantea


Late Goldenrod

Flowering Branch Side

St. Ambroise Provincial Park, Manitoba
03-sep-2004

Note the secund flower heads.

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Gigantea:  Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this species.  
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plants 5-20 dm tall; NOT 2-4 dm tall

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stem below the inflorescence glabrous or very sparsely pubescent ; NOT densely pubescent

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basal leaves SELDOM forming a rosette

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basal leaves NOT much longer than stem leaves

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cauline leaves numerous; NOT rather few

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leaves lanceolate to oval, more than 4 times as long as wide (BF); NOT obovate, NOT oblanceolate to spatulate, NOT 2.5-3 times as long as wide

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leaves usually serrate; NOT entire

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leaves 3-nerved (1 pair of lateral nerves fairly prominent); NOT 1-nerved

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leaves green; NOT grayish green

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inflorescence pyramidal; NOT more or less cylindrical, NOT narrowly oval

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branches of inflorescence more or less spreading or arching; NOT slanting upward, NOT ascending along the stem

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heads panicled with racemose branches; heads NOT racemose; heads NOT in dense cymose clusters with these arranged in a flat-topped or corymb-like inflorescence

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heads often secund on the branches

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involucres mostly 3-6 mm  high; NOT 2-3 mm high

 
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Solidago: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus. 
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fibrous-rooted, NOT tap-rooted

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juice watery; NOT milky

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leaves alternate; NOT opposite

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leaves simple; NOT pinnatifid, NOT divided

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heads small and numerous, in terminal or axillary clusters; NOT solitary at ends of branches

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involucral bracts in 2 or more series; NOT in one series; NOT in one series with a few very much shorter outer bracts at base

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involucral bracts well imbricated; NOT scarcely imbricated

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receptacle naked; NOT chaffy or bristly

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flower heads with both tubular and ray florets; NOT all tubular; NOT all ray

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ray (ligulate) florets either pistillate or neutral; NOT perfect

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ray florets yellow; NOT blue, NOT purple, NOT white to pink

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stamens united to form a tube around the pistil

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pappus simple (bristles sometimes unequal, but not distinctly divided into two lengths); NOT double (outer inconspicuous and very much shorter than the inner)

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pappus composed of hairs; NOT composed of scales or bristles, NOT chaffy, NOT of firm awns, NOT absent