Graminifolia: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this species.   plants generally taller than 0.5-2.0 (3.0) dm tall stem and leaves glabrous; leaves NOT gray pubescent, leaves NOT rough petiole of the basal leaves (if present) NOT conspicuously ciliate leaves finely glandular pubescent leaves flat; NOT [commonly folded lengthwise] stem leaves sessile or subsessile stem leaves all about the same size; NOT [with the upper ones much reduced] inflorescence corymbose, with the branches slanting upward, forming a rounded or flat-topped inflorescence;  inflorescence NOT [cylindrical to narrowly oval, or paniculate, with spreading or arching branches], inflorescence NOT a panicle, inflorescence NOT a spike inflorescence with 10-50 heads; NOT [mostly with more than 50 heads] involucral bracts NOT striate ray florets yellow; NOT white, NOT pale yellow ray florets usually less than 5 mm long; NOT 5-8 mm long

 

Solidago: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus. plants with fibrous roots; NOT with a taproot juice watery; NOT milky leaves alternate or basal; NOT opposite leaves simple; NOT pinnatifid, NOT divided leaves never spinescent heads small and numerous, in terminal or axillary clusters; NOT [usually solitary at ends of branches] involucral bracts in 2 or more series; NOT [in one series, sometimes with a few much shorter outer ones at the base] involucral bracts well imbricated; NOT scarcely imbricated receptacle naked flower heads with both tubular and ray florets ligulate flowers pistillate or neuter; NOT perfect ray florets yellow; NOT [pink, blue, purple, or white] stamens united to form a tube around the pistil pappus composed of hairs; NOT scales, NOT bristles, NOT firm awns, NOT a crown, NOT absent, pappus NOT chaffy pappus single, hairs sometimes unequal but not distinctly divided into an inner and outer series of two lengths; NOT [pappus double, hairs of the outer series inconspicuous, distinctly shorter than the inner]