White Goldenrod

Plants 20–100 cm; caudices branching. Stems 1(–5), erect, usually branching only in array, moderately to densely hispido-villous. Leaves: basal and proximal cauline tapering to winged petioles, blades oblanceolate to ovate, 35–210 × 15–50 mm, margins serrate or crenate, apices acute, sparsely to moderately soft hispido-villous, more densely so on abaxial nerves; rosettes on rhizome branches sometimes present at flowering; mid and distal cauline sessile, blades elliptic, 15–50 × 5–15 mm, distally reduced, margins entire. Heads 12–270 (1–15 per branch) in usually wand-shaped paniculiform arrays , of short axillary and terminal racemiform, non-secund clusters, sometimes proximal branches elongated, ascending and bearing short axillary and terminal racemiform clusters. Peduncles 1.5–2.5 mm, hispido-villous to canescent. Involucres campanulate, 3–5 mm. Phyllaries in 3–4 series, appressed, strongly unequal, oblong, margins white, scarious, apices obtuse to rounded. Ray florets 7–9 (white); laminae 3.5–4 × 1–1.5 mm. Disc florets 9–12; corollas 3–4 mm, lobes 0.6–1.2 mm. Cypselae (narrowly obconic) 1.5–2.5 mm, smooth or with 5–8 narrow, darker, sunken striations, glabrous or sparsely strigose; pappi 2.5–3.5 mm (sometimes strongly clavate). 2n =18.

Aster bicolor (Linnaeus) Nees; A. pubens (M. A. Curtis ex Torrey & A. Gray) Kuntze; Solidago alba Miller; S. curtisii Torrey & A. Gray var. pubens (M. A. Curtis ex Torrey & A. Gray) A. Gray; S. pubens M. A. Curtis ex Torrey & A. Gray

Solidago bicolor, with several common names including white goldenrod, silverrod and (in Québec) verge d’or bicolore, is a plant species native to much of eastern North America. It is found in Canada (from Manitoba to Nova Scotia) and in the United States (every state completely east of the Mississippi except Florida). It prefers sandy and rocky soils, and can frequently be found along roadsides.

Solidago bicolor

Solidago bicolor is distinctive in the genus. Stems are thin and wiry. Flowers are white rather than yellow, the heads mostly clustered in the axils of the leaves rather than displayed in a large terminal raceme.