7. Solidago flexicaulis L. (broadleaf goldenrod)

Pl. 239 f–h; Map 996

Plants with long, slender, branched rhizomes. Stems usually solitary, 30–120 cm long, erect to loosely ascending, noticeably few-angled and ridged, often strongly zigzag especially toward the tip, glabrous below the inflorescence (the inflorescence branches moderately pubescent with curved hairs), sometimes slightly shiny, not glaucous. Leaves chiefly cauline, the largest leaves in the lower 1/3–1/4 of the stem, the basal leaves absent at flowering. Basal and lowermost stem leaves with the blade 7–15 cm long, 3–10 cm wide, mostly 1–2 times as long as wide, broadly ovate to broadly elliptic-ovate, relatively thin, rounded then tapered abruptly at the base to a relatively long, winged petiole, short-tapered to a sharply pointed tip, the margins sharply toothed and usually inconspicuously hairy, the upper surface glabrous, the undersurface sparsely to moderately pubescent with short, spreading hairs, with 1 main vein, the fine, pinnate secondary veins relatively easily observed (these usually forming an irregular network). Median and upper stem leaves 1–10 cm long, the uppermost leaves sometimes lanceolate to narrowly elliptic and with the margins entire or nearly so, otherwise similar to the lower stem leaves. Inflorescences of axillary clusters grading into a narrow, racemose panicle, the heads oriented in several directions when short ascending branches are present. Involucre 4–6 mm long, the bracts in 3–5 unequal series. Involucral bracts mostly narrowly oblong and rounded to bluntly pointed (those of the outer series often oblong-lanceolate and sharply pointed) at the appressed-ascending tip, the thin, white to yellowish white margins hairy toward the tip, the outer surface glabrous, with a poorly defined, green central region toward the tip, this tapered abruptly to the midvein above or below the bract midpoint, the midvein often slightly thickened. Receptacle naked. Ray florets 3–5, the corollas 2.5–5.0 mm long, yellow. Disc florets 5–9, the corollas 3–5 mm long, the lobes 0.9–1.2 mm long, yellow. Pappus 2–3 mm long, a few of the bristles often slightly thickened toward the tip. Fruits 1.5–2.0 mm long, narrowly obovoid, finely hairy. 2n=18, 36. July–October.

Scattered in the eastern half of the state, uncommon farther west (eastern U.S. west to North Dakota and Oklahoma; Canada). Bases and ledges of shaded bluffs, banks of streams and rivers, bottomland forests, and mesic upland forests.