62.
Solidago gigantea
Aiton, Hort. Kew. 3: 211. 1789.
Tall or giant or smooth goldenrod , verge d'or géante
Aster latissimifolius
(Miller) Kuntze var.
serotinus
Kuntze;
Doria dumetorum
(Lunell) Lunell;
D. pitcheri
(Nuttall) Lunell;
Solidago cleliae
de Candolle
; S. dumetorum
Lunell;
S. gigantea
var.
leiophylla
Fernald
; S. gigantea
var.
pitcheri
(Nuttall) Shinners;
S. gigantea
subsp.
serotina
(Kuntze) McNeill;
S. gigantea
var.
serotina
(Kuntze) Cronquist;
S. gigantea
var.
shinnersii
Beaudry;
S. pitcheri
Nuttall;
S. serotina
Aiton 1789, not Retzius 1781;
S. serotina
var.
gigantea
(Aiton) A. Gray;
S. serotina
var.
minor
Hooker;
S. serotinoides
Á. Löve & D. Löve;
S. shinnersii
(Beaudry) Beaudry;
S. somesii
Rydberg
Plants
50—200 cm (solitary or clustered); rhizomes short- to long-creeping.
Stems
1—20+ or clustered, erect, glabrous or sparsely strigose in arrays, sometimes glaucous.
Leaves:
basal 0; proximal cauline usually withering by flowering time, sessile, lanceolate, 91—97 × 10—14 mm, margins sharply serrate, 3-nerved, apices acuminate, abaxial faces pilose on nerves or glabrous; mid to distal cauline similar, 57—76 × 0.7—1.2 cm, largest toward mid stem, decreasing distally.
Heads
40—600 , secund, in broadly secund, pyramidal paniculiform arrays, rarely rhombic or club-shaped, proximal branches divergent, recurved, glabrous-glabrate or strigose, sometimes glaucous.
Peduncles
1.5—3 mm, sparsely to densely strigillose; bracteoles 0—2, linear-lanceolate.
Involucres
campanulate, (2—)2.5—4(—5) mm.
Phyllaries
in 3—4 series, unequal, acute; outer lanceolate, inner linear-lanceolate (hexa-ploids from far west can have minute stipitate glands, especially near base of outer phyllaries and peduncle bracts).
Ray florets
(7—)9—15(—24) (conspicuous); laminae 1—3 × (0.1—)0.2—0.4 mm.
Disc florets
(4—)7—12(—17); corollas (2.5—)3—3.5(—4.5) mm, lobes 0.6—1(—1.4) mm.
Cypselae
1.3—1.5 mm, sparsely strigose;
pappi
2—2.5 mm.
2
n
=18, 36, 54.
Flowering Aug—Sep(—Oct). Usually at least seasonally moister soils, flood plains, ditches, depressions, open woods, and thickets, moist depressions in grasslands and parklands on Great Plains; 0—1500+ m; Alta. , Man., N.B., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask.; Ala., Ark., Colo., Conn., Del., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., La., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., Mont., Nebr., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., N.Dak., Ohio, Okla., Pa., R.I., S.C., S.Dak., Tenn., Tex., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis., Wyo.; introduced in Mexico.
Solidago gigantea
is usually the least hairy species of the
S.
canadensis
complex. The stems may be somewhat glaucous and the array is usually somewhat more open than in
S. canadensis
and
S
.
altissima
, and less leafy than S
. lepida
. Its blooming season begins and ends earlier than
S. altissima
in eastern North America. The species is diploid, mostly east of the Appalachian Mountains, tetraploid throughout the eastern forest area, and hexa-ploid on the prairies. The broader-leaved hexaploids on the prairies have been treated as
S. shinnersii
; G. H. Morton (1984) indicated that the differences are not diagnostic. Reports of hexaploids in the mountains from Alberta, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and northwestern Wyoming all have minute stipitate glands on the phyllaries, peduncle bracts, and sometimes the distalmost leaves; such plants belong in
S. lepida,
as do plants from British Columbia. Stems sometimes have 1—2 elongate insect galls near the base (S. Heard, pers. comm.). Although reported from much of Florida, specimens were seen only from Liberty County; all other collections are
S. leavenworthii
.
