goldenrod

goldenrod, any species of the large genus Solidago of the family Asteraceae (aster family), chiefly North American weedy herbs. They have small yellow flowers clustered, often in panicles, along a wandlike stem. The few species that have white flowers are called silverrod. The goldenrods were, at one time, incorrectly considered a chief cause of hay fever, probably because they bloom in late summer and autumn, at the same time as the less conspicuous ragweeds. Goldenrods attracted short-lived commercial attention when Thomas Edison found that certain species contain latex. Some species (sometimes called dyer's-weed) have yielded a dye, and the leaves of many species have long been used for medicinal preparations and teas, whence the botanical name [Lat. solidare=to make whole]. The goldenrod adds beauty to fields, roadsides, and salt marshes in so many parts of the United States that it has been chosen as the state flower of Alabama, Kentucky, and Nebraska and has even been suggested for the national flower. Goldenrod is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Asterales, family Asteraceae.

---

goldenrod

Any of the approximately 100 species of weedy, usually perennial herbaceous plants that make up the genus Solidago, in the composite family. Most are native to North America; a few grow in Europe and Asia. They have toothed leaves and clustered yellow flower heads composed of both disk and ray flowers. Characteristic plants in eastern North America, they are found almost everywhere—in woodlands, swamps, on mountains, in fields, and along roadsides—and are a prominent feature of autumn from the Great Plains east to the Atlantic. Unlike ragweed, which blooms at the same time, they are not a cause of hay fever.

---

goldenrod

1. any plant of the genus Solidago, of North America, Europe, and Asia, having spikes made up of inflorescences of minute yellow florets: family Asteraceae (composites)

2. any of various similar related plants, such as Brachychaeta sphacelata (false goldenrod) of the southern US

---

goldenrod

of Kentucky and Nebraska. [Flower Symbolism: Golenpaul, 632]

See : Flower, State