I worked with an Elderhostel group of 45 retired people
representing 13 states this morning and must admit that I quite
strongly emphasized a statement in my introduction just to watch
their facial expressions and to receive some responses. Among
the wildflowers, I told them, that were in a way greeting the
group to our county were large expanses of several different
kinds of goldenrods.
Immediately upon hearing about the fields of goldenrods I
easily detected quite a few snickers, plenty of smiles and a
rather widespread disagreement to what I had said. The fact of
the matter is that these wildflowers with the attractive feathery
plumes receive suspicious and accusing glances from thousands of
sneezers each fall, and all in error. The pollen of the various
species of our native goldenrods is too heavy to be carried by
wind and has virtually no relationship to whatever it is (ragweed
pollen to a great extent) in the air that is causing many people
to suffer so much.
I dearly hope that some of you hayfever-afflicted readers
don’t test me out! A patch of goldenrods will, in fact, act as
"feather dusters" cleaning the air of all sorts of
grains of dust and pollen! Mark my word – you’ll return from
your walk through a large patch of Canada goldenrod, for example,
wishing you hadn’t done so.
Many kinds of goldenrods are very fascinating, beautiful and
often quite solitary unlike the enormous groups of Canada
goldenrods that can become extremely invasive and weedy. Huge
stands of solid yellow at this time of the year are very likely
Canada goldenrods. We have more than we wish throughout our
five-acre field and along the edge of our garden, succeeding
very well in invading the loosely tilled soil. Try to pull or
dig them out and you’re in for a surprise. What a tenacious
root system these hardy perennials have.
Spend some time in the middle of a goldenrod patch observing
the numbers of insects visiting the flowers there. Butterflies
especially will be on hand along with moths, flies, bees, wasps,
hornets, beetles and maybe even "bugs." What an ideal
place for a youngster to start an insect collection.
Wisconsin lays claim to about 28 species and varieties of
goldenrods, a rather large percent of the approximately 100
species occurring in the U.S. Interestingly, there is only one
British species, Solidago virgaurea, the European
goldenrod. However, sensing the late summer and fall beauty of
several North American species, the British have imported some
showy species to be used as tall golden backdrops in their
gardens.
By the way, the genus of goldenrods, Solidago (sol-i-DAY-go),
is from the Latin, "solidare," meaning to join or make
whole. In the olden times it was common to cut goldenrod plants
into small pieces, boil them in water and use the liquid as a
healing wash for wounds.
We too favor one of the tall species, S. speciosa
(spe-she-O-sa), the showy goldenrod. One patch of around 20
plants next to our east retaining wall in our front yard receives
frequent watering and occasional fertilizing during the summer
and may grow to nearly six feet tall some years.
One of my favorites of all goldenrods holds its own very
nicely into October, the gray goldenrod, also known as dyer’s
weed, S. nemoralis (nem-o-RAY-lis). Due to the poor soil
in the stony ditches where many grow, they are frequently no
taller than eight to 10 inches, dainty little plants with very
fine hairs giving them a grayish cast. The plant is so easy to
recognize because of the tendency of the flower tip to bend over.
The fact that especially the closely related goldenrods tend
to hybridize makes accurate identification difficult at times.
Two field guides that I feel are very good for identifying
goldenrods are Peterson's A Field Guide to Wildflowers and
Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. Even though it’s not always
possible to know which goldenrod you’re looking at, it’s fun to
try.
There are several other goldenrod species that are among my
favorite wildflowers. The very early blooming, rather short and
flat-topped Ohio goldenrod often is in good flower by early
August near the shores of Lake Michigan. The tall bog goldenrod
is a real beauty often growing all by itself in sunny wetlands.
The only species that is able to grow in fairly shady woods is
the elegant zigzag goldenrod, S. flexicaulis, now in
blossom. It can be easily identified by its pronounced zigzag
stem and wide leaves that have coarse teeth along their margins.
One of the rarest species in our state, thought to be found
only along sandy shores in Door County, is the dune goldenrod,
S. spathulata var. gilmani. It can be told by its narrow
plume-like inflorescence and deep maroon-colored stem. It’s
perhaps the last vigorous blossoming plant of the season nearest
to the lake, usually well into October.
Eight to ten weeks of glorious goldenrods in one area is
nothing to sneeze at!
Goldenrod's heavy pollen is not blown by the wind.
It is the very light pollen of the ragweed that causes much of the sneezing of hay fever.
This column appeared in the Door County Advocate
on 09/20/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Roy Lukes. All rights reserved.
