39.
Solidago stricta
Aiton, Hort. Kew. 3: 216. 1789.
Wand or wandlike or willow-leaf goldenrod
Plants
30—200 cm; caudices short, simple, rhizomes long, stoloni-form.
Stems
1—5(—10) , ascending to erect (tall stems sometimes arching), branching proximal to arrays only in damaged stems, glabrous.
Leaves:
basal subsessile to winged-petiolate, petioles of proximalmost nearly completely sheathing stems, blades oblanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, 60—600 × 3—20(—50) mm, thick and firm, obtuse to rounded, bases tapering, margins entire or obscurely serrate, glabrous; proximal to distal cauline sessile, ascending to nearly appressed, lanceolate-oblong to linear, 10—30 × 2—4 mm, abruptly reduced proximally, then gradually so distally, margins entire, apices acute, faces glabrous.
Heads
15—250 , sometimes secund on proximal branches and secund terminus, in linear, narrowly elongate paniculiform to elongate pyramidal-secund or thyrsiform-paniculiform and not secund arrays, sometimes with a few elongate proximal, arching branches.
Peduncles
slender, 2—10 mm, glabrous or sparsely strigillose; bracteoles linear.
Involucres
narrowly campanulate, 4—6 mm.
Phyllaries
in 3—4 series, oblong, unequal, acute to rounded, glabrous.
Ray florets
3—7, 1.5—2 × ca. 0.5 mm.
Disc florets
usually 8—12; corollas 3—5 mm, lobes 1—1.2 mm.
Cypselae
1.5—2.5 mm, sparsely to moderately strigose;
pappi
3 mm.
Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora): North America, Mexico, Central America.
Solidago chrysopsis
is interpreted here as just a diminutive form of
S. stricta
growing in the Florida Keys.
Solidago stricta
may hybridize with
S. sempervirens
in locations near salt marshes.
Solidago flavovirens
, from brackish marshes near Apalachicola, may be this species, or perhaps a hybrid with
S. sempervirens.
