Solidago gigantea

"Notes: Western Ghats, Cultivated, Native of Temperate America"

This native perennial wildflower is 3-7' tall and largely unbranched, except at the apex, where the flowering stalks occur. The central stem is light green or pale purple, terete, glabrous, and sometimes glaucous. The alternate leaves are 3-5" long and 1/3–2/3" across, becoming only slightly shorter while ascending the central stem. Sometimes there are leafy lateral stems that develop from the leaf axils of the central stem, but they are very short and insignificant. The alternate leaves are narrowly lanceolate to elliptic, slightly to sharply toothed along their margins, and sessile; each leaf tapers gradually towards its tip and base. The upper surfaces of the leaves are medium to dark green and glabrous, while their lower surfaces are a slightly lighter shade of green and glabrous or nearly so (sometimes there are fine hairs along the major veins below). Each leaf has 3 veins (a central vein and 2 lateral veins) that are nearly parallel to each other. The central stem terminates in a panicle of flowerheads up to 1' long and 1' across. There is some variability in the shape and size of the panicle across different populations of plants. Individual branches of the panicle are light green, slightly to moderately pubescent, and recurved. There are usually some leafy bracts along the branches of the panicle; these leafy bracts are similar to the leaves, except they are smaller in size. Individual flowerheads are a little less than ¼" across, consisting of about 7-15 yellow ray florets and 5-11 yellow disk florets. At the base of each flowerhead, there are appressed floral bracts in 2-5 overlapping series; individual floral bracts are linear-lanceolate in shape. The blooming period occurs from late summer to early fall for about a month. Both ray and disk florets produce small achenes with sessile tufts of hair. The achenes are bullet-shaped, flat-topped, and finely pubescent. The root system is fibrous and rhizomatous. Colonies of plants are often formed from the rhizomes.

Giant Goldenrod is occasional to locally common throughout Illinois. However, some decline in populations across the state may have occurred from habitat destruction. Habitats include openings in floodplain woodlands, borders of woodlands, low partially shaded areas along rivers and ponds, riverbottom prairies, wet prairies, prairie swales, soggy thickets, fens, and ditches. The preceding list includes both sandy and non-sandy habitats. In general, Giant Goldenrod is an adaptable plant with low fidelity to any particular habitat. Its main requirement is the availability of adequate moisture.

Solidago gigantea var. leiophylla Fernald:
Canada (North America)
United States (North America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Solidago × leiophallax Friesner:
United States (North America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Solidago gigantea var. serotina (Kuntze) Cronquist:
United States (North America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Solidago gigantea Aiton:
Canada (North America)
United States (North America)
Colombia (South America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Canada

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

United States

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

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. 2n =18, 36, 54.

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

Giant Goldenrod is occasional to locally common throughout Illinois. However, some decline in populations across the state may have occurred from habitat destruction. Habitats include openings in floodplain woodlands, borders of woodlands, low partially shaded areas along rivers and ponds, riverbottom prairies, wet prairies, prairie swales, soggy thickets, fens, and ditches. The preceding list includes both sandy and non-sandy habitats. In general, Giant Goldenrod is an adaptable plant with low fidelity to any particular habitat. Its main requirement is the availability of adequate moisture.

Solidago gigantea (Giant Goldenrod)
(bees suck nectar or collect pollen; beetles feed on pollen & are non-pollinating; other insects suck nectar; some observations are from Robertson, otherwise they are from LaBerge, Moure & Hurd, Krombein et al., Graenicher, and Fothergill & Vaughn as indicated below)

Bees (long-tongued)
Apidae (Bombini): Bombus pensylvanica sn (Rb), Bombus vagans sn (Rb); Anthophoridae (Eucerini): Melissodes comptoides (LB), Melissodes rustica sn (Rb), Svastra obliqua obliqua (LB)

Bees (short-tongued)
Halictidae (Halictinae): Halictus rubicunda (MH); Andrenidae (Andreninae): Andrena simplex sn cp olg (Kr), Andrenidae (Panurginae): Calliopsis coloradensis (Kr), Heterosarus andrenoides sn cp (Rb)

Wasps
Sphecidae (Crabroninae): Ectemnius continuus sn (Rb)

Flies
Syrphidae: Brachypalpus cyanogaster (Gr), Eristalis flavipes (Gr), Orthonevra pictipennis (Gr), Palpada vinetorum (Gr), Spilomyia fusca (Gr), Spilomyia sayi sn (Rb, Gr), Xylota ejuncida (Gr)

Butterflies
Nymphalidae: Phyciodes tharos sn (FV); Lycaenidae: Strymon melinus sn (FV)

Moths
Noctuidae: Acontia aprica sn (FV); Yponomeutidae: Atteva punctella sn (FV)

Beetles
Cerambycidae: Megacyllene robiniae fp np (Rb)

The nectar and pollen of the flowerheads attract many kinds of insects, including bumblebees, digger bees (Melissodes, Svastra), Halictid bees, dagger bees (Calliopsis, Heterosarus), Andrenid bees, Syrphid flies, and wasps. Other insects have been observed to feed on the leaves and other parts of Giant Goldenrod. These species include several leaf beetles, specifically

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 5
Specimens with Barcodes: 8
Species With Barcodes: 1

Rounded Global Status Rank: G5 - Secure

Canada

Rounded National Status Rank: N5 - Secure

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: N5 - Secure

These species are introduced in Switzerland.

Giant Goldenrod prefers full sunlight to light shade, wet to moist conditions, and soil consisting of loam, clay-loam, sandy loam, or silty loam. It tolerates temporary flooding during the spring. In cultivation, some plants may lean over during the blooming period because of their height.