Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons

Order: Asterales

Family: Asteraceae -- sunflower

Variety: There have been a number of varieties described by various taxonomists but most are poorly defined and are not widely accepted.

Common Name: Missouri goldenrod

Species Code: SOMI2

Origin: Native to dry to mesic places in shrub-steppe, grasslands, and open forests of western and central North America from southern British Columbia east to Ontario and south to Texas and Mississippi except California.

Rare: no

Form: forb, perennial from rhizomes and sometimes a caudex as well; stems erect, 20-90 cm tall, mostly glabrous but sometimes slightly puberulent in the inflorescence.

Mature height: 8-36 inches

Duration: perennial

Longevity: long-lived

Habitat Type: prairie

Wetland Indicator Status: not listed

Leaves: mostly 3-nerved; basal and lowermost cauline leaves oblanceolate, 5-30 cm long and 0.5-3 cm wide, mostly deciduous; cauline leaves alternate, reduced, becoming linear and sessile upward.

Flowers: numerous; involucre 3-5 mm high, campanulate, bracts imbricate, ciliolate tipped; ray flowers 7-13 (usually 8), 4-5 mm long, yellow; disc flowers 3 mm long, yellow.

Flower color: yellow

Bloom: July, August, into September on mesic sites

Bloom starts on: early July

Bloom ends on: late September

Fruit: achene, 1.5 mm long, linear; pappus of numerous white bristles 3 mm long.

Characteristics:
Same name in St. John 1963, Piper & Beattie 1914, Davis 1953.
Reproduces both sexually by seed and vegetatively by rhizomes.
Some plants may grow from a caudex.
Fibrous rooted.
x=9 (University of British Columbia 2003).
2n=18, 36 (Flora of North America Editorial Committee 1993).
Diploid forms only are found in the midwest, while Rocky Mountain and western plants are usually tetraploids, the diploids being uncommon (Flora of North America Editorial Committee 1993).
Disc flowers are perfect, ray flowers are pistillate.
1,998,238 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center 2005).
Fruit is an achene.
Seeds are windborne.
Seeds are stored in the seed bank (Rabinowitz 1981).
Some native peoples used the plants medicinally (Stubbendieck et al 1997).
S. missouriensis may be grazed by sheep and cattle early in the season but is poor forage. It increases with overgrazing and may be poisonous to sheep (Stubbendieck et al 1997).
Rocky Mountain elk use Solidago spp. sparingly in the winter (Kufeld 1973).
Both adults and larva of the chrysomelid beetle Trirhabda canadensis feed on the leaves of S. missouriensis (Brown 1994, Brown & Weis 1995, Preus & Morrow 1999). Severe defoliation by T. canadensis can result in S. missouriensis remaining dormant for one or more seasons before regenerating by rhizomes (Morrow & Olfelt 2003). A fly, Eurosta comma, induces galls on the rhizomes, reducing rhizome production. An infestation by both insects together may result in death of plants (Preus & Morrow 1999).
Some species of bees are attracted to the pollen (Stubbendieck et al 1997).

Comments: California plants were previously thought to be S. missouriensis but are all now referred to as Solidago spectabilis (Baldwin et al 2004).

Sun requirement: full sun to partial shade

Soil moisture: xeric to mesic

Precipitation: 12-35 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).

Fire: Rhizomes survive most fires. Also recolonizes from wind-borne seed. Frequency and cover often increase after fire (Walsh 1994).

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: spring

Stratification: none required

Seed yield: high

Seed harvest: difficult

Seed first harvest: second season

Seed cleaning: medium difficulty

Planting duration: long

Seed insect problem: yes

Seed shatter: medium

Seed size: small

Seed harvest date: early Sept

Seed comments: wind-borne seed, seed production declines rapidly in later seasons

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Keywords: native perennial upland forb

Propagation:
1 protocol in the Native Plant Network
Pullman WA Plant Materials Center

Other Propagation Information:
Can be propagated by divisions.
While the seed does not need stratification, stand establishment is better from fall than from spring seedings (unpublished data, USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center).
Reproduces both sexually by seed and vegetatively by rhizomes.

Notes: Solidago missouriensis has masses of bright yellow flowers on short stems about 18 inches tall. Also blooms in late summer, but a little earlier than S. canadensis. Gets kind of floppy and untidy as the blooms mature. Pinching back may help reduce that. It spreads by rhizomes and is probably too aggressive for a small yard or garden. Can be grown in a more wild setting where other plants help keep it in check, and should be a good plant for bank stabilization and erosion control. It will grow on drier sites than its cousin S. canadensis. Common name is Missouri goldenrod (Skinner et al 2005).

References:
Baldwin, B.G., S. Boyd, B.J. Ertter, D.J. Keil, R.W. Patterson, T.J. Rosatti, and D.H. Wilken (eds). 2004. Jepson Online Interchange for California Floristics. University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley, CA. Accessed 12/8/09 online at http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/interchange.html

Brown, D. Gordon. 1994. Beetle Folivory Increases Resource Availability and Alters Plant Invasion in Monocultures of Goldenrod. Ecology 75:1673-1683.

Brown, D. Gordon, and Arthur E. Weis. 1995. Direct and Indirect Effects of Prior Grazing of Goldenrod upon Performance of a Leaf Beetle. Ecology 76:426-436.

Davis, Ray J. 1952. Flora of Idaho. Wm. C. Brown, Dubuque, Iowa. 827 pp.

Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+. Flora of North America North of Mexico. 7+ vols. New York and Oxford. Oxford University Press. Online at http://www.fna.org/FNA/

Hitchcock, C. Leo, Arthur Cronquist, Marion Ownbey, and J.W. Thompson. 1969. Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press. Seattle, WA. 5 vol.

Kufeld, Roland. 1973. Foods Eaten by the Rocky Mountain Elk. Journal of Range Management 26:106-113.

Morrow, Patrice A., and Joel P. Olfelt. 2003. Phoenix Clones: Recovery After Long-term Defoliation-induced Dormancy. Ecology Letters 6:119-125.

Piper, C.V., and R.K. Beattie. 1914. The Flora of Southeastern Washington and Adjacent Idaho. Press of the New Era Printing Company, Lancaster, PA. 296 pp.

Preus, Laura E., and Patrice A. Morrow. 1999. Direct and Indirect Effects of Two Herbivore Species on Resource Allocation in Their Shared Host Plant: the Rhizome Galler Eurosta comma, the Folivore Trirhabda canadensis and Solidago missouriensis. Oecologia 119:219-226.

Rabinowitz, D. 1981. Buried Viable Seeds in a North American Tall-grass Prairie: the Resemblance of Their Abundance and Composition to Dispersing Seeds. Oikos 36:191-195.

Skinner, David M., Paul Warnick, Bill French, and Mary Fauci. 2005. Characteristics and Uses of Native Palouse Forbs in Landscaping. USDA NRCS Pullman Plant Materials Center and Palouse Prairie Foundation. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/pmc_nrcs/Docs/Forbs_for_Landscaping.pdf

St. John, Harold. 1963. Flora of Southeastern Washington and of Adjacent Idaho. 3rd edition. Outdoor Pictures. Escondido, CA.

Stubbendieck, James, Stephan L. Hatch, and Charles H. Butterfield. 1997. North American Range Plants. 5th edition. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE. 501 pp.

University of British Columbia. 2003. British Columbia Flora. University of British Columbia Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research. Accessed 9/1/09 online at http://www.bcflora.org/

USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 8 December 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

USDA NRCS, Pullman Plant Materials Center. 2005. Seed Weights of Some Palouse Native Species. Pullman Plant Materials Center, Pullman, Washington. Online at http://www.wsu.edu/~pmc_nrcs/Docs/Seed_Weights_Palouse_Native_Species.pdf

Walsh, Roberta A. 1994. Solidago missouriensis. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/ [2009, December 8].

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species account from the Fire Effects Information System
Species description from Flora of North America
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium