Astragalus gilviflorus

Solidago missouriensis

Low Goldenrod

Basal Leaf Bottom
Welwyn Regional Park
15-July-2005

Missouriensis: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this species.

plants generally taller than 0.5-2.0 (3.0) dm tall

plants mostly 2-4 dm tall; NOT 5-15 dm tall

stems mostly glabrous below the inflorescence; NOT [mostly pubescent or puberulent]

leaves glabrous; NOT [gray pubescent or puberulent]

a basal rosette often present; NOT [absent, or reduced and soon withered]

basal leaves much longer than stem leaves

lower stem leaves well developed; NOT [absent, or reduced and soon withered]

stem leaves reduced upwards; NOT [stem leafiest from about the middle, and only gradually or scarcely reduced upward]

petiole of the basal leaves NOT conspicuously ciliate

lower and middle stem leaves to 10 cm long; NOT [usually 20 cm or more long]

lower and middle stem leaves 15 mm wide; NOT 20-75 mm wide

lower stem leaves narrowly oblanceolate; NOT [leaves lanceolate]

lower and middle stem leaves entire or obscurely dentate; NOT clearly serrate

lower and middle stem leaves distinctly 3-nerved

inflorescence a panicle with more or less spreading or arching branches; inflorescence NOT [racemose, with branches ascending along the stem]; inflorescence NOT [corymbose, with the branches slanting upward, forming a rounded or flat-topped inflorescence]

heads often secund on the branches

heads NOT glutinous

Solidago: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus.

plants with fibrous roots; NOT with a taproot

juice watery; NOT milky

leaves alternate or basal; NOT opposite

leaves simple; NOT pinnatifid, NOT divided

leaves never spinescent

heads small and numerous, in terminal or axillary clusters; NOT [usually solitary at ends of branches]

involucral bracts in 2 or more series; NOT [in one series, sometimes with a few much shorter outer ones at the base]

involucral bracts well imbricated; NOT scarcely imbricated

receptacle naked

flower heads with both tubular and ray florets

ligulate flowers pistillate or neuter; NOT perfect

ray florets yellow; NOT [pink, blue, purple, or white]

stamens united to form a tube around the pistil

pappus composed of hairs; NOT scales, NOT bristles, NOT firm awns, NOT a crown, NOT absent, pappus NOT chaffy

pappus single, hairs sometimes unequal but not distinctly divided into an inner and outer series of two lengths; NOT [pappus double, hairs of the outer series inconspicuous, distinctly shorter than the inner]