Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

Grass-leaved Goldenrod is an erect native perennial forb, growing from 1 to 4 feet high on stems that are usually smooth and hairless but very leafy. There may be some dense stem hair in the upper stem section. Branching occurs near the top 10 to 25% of the stem providing open space between the flower clusters.

The leaves are alternate, spreading to ascending, linear to lanceolate in shape, without teeth but margins may have some short stiff hair and larger leaves may show some sparse hair on the mid-vein. There are 3 to 5 veins, the largest leaves are about 1/4 inch wide, but 7 to 20x longer than wide. These are much reduced in size near the top of the stem. Leaf tips are pointed and the bases taper to the stem attachment point. There will be a little gland-dotting on the surfaces.

The floral array is composed of branched flat-topped clusters at the top of the stems.

The flowers are composed of two types of florets: There are 17 to 22+ yellow ray florets which are pistillate and fertile. These surround a smaller number (5 to 7+) of disc florets that have yellow tubular corollas with 5 lobes; the lobes are erect to ascending when in flower. The disc florets are bisexual and fertile. They have 5 stamens and a branched style, with lanceolate shaped appendages at the tips. The style appendage is exserted beyond the corolla when in flower. Stamens surround and are appressed to the style. The outside of the flowerhead has several series of phyllaries that usually have yellowish bases. The outer ones are ovate and usually with green tips; the inner oblong with rounded to obtuse tips.

Seed: Fertile flowers produce a dry ellipsoid cypsela with white fully pappus attached for wind dispersion. Seeds of Euthamia usually require 60 days of cold stratification and light for germination so they should be surface sown.

Varieties: Over time several varieties of this species have been described but most authorities today such as Flora of North America and the Minnesota authorities at the U of M and the MN DNR do not recognize varieties but treat them as simple local ecotypes.

Habitat: Grass-leaved Goldenrod grows a rhizomatous root system, which allows the plant to form colonies vegetatively. It is not aggressive and can be out-competed by grasses and other prairie plants. It grows in moist to dry condition of prairies, meadows, roadsides and empty fields and lots. Full sun best.

Names: In the 20th century This species was formerly in the genus Solidago with the species name of graminifolia, but botanists have separated it out into Euthamia based on the arrangement of flower heads, the gland-dotted leaves and DNA data. The genus Euthamia is derived from two Greek words - eu for 'good' or 'well' and thama for 'crowded'; said to be referring to the branching pattern of the floral array which provides many dense flower clusters. The species graminifolia means 'with leaves resembling grass'.

The author names for the plant classification: First to classify, in 1753 under the name Chrysocoma graminifolia was 'L.' which refers to Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), Swedish botanist and the developer of the binomial nomenclature of modern taxonomy. His work was updated in 1840 by ‘Nutt.’ which refers to Thomas Nuttall (1786-1859) English botanist who lived and worked in America from 1808 to 1841. On his many expeditions he collected many species including some that had been originally collected by Lewis and Clark but lost by them on their return journey. He was indefatigable as a collector but incompetent in many practical matters. Washington Irving wrote of him in Astoria “Mr. Nuttall was a zealous botanist - forgetful of everything but his immediate pursuit.” He revised and added to French botanist Francois Andre Michaux’s 3 volume North American Sylva.

Comparisons: The leaves of Riddell's Goldenrod, Solidago riddellii, are somewhat grass-like but there the leaves are folded toward the center vein, are not gland-dotted, and the upper leaves sheath the stem while the number of ray florets is much fewer - 7 to 9.