''Solidago radula,'' the western rough goldenrod, is a North American plant species in the family Asteraceae. It is found primarily in the southern

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

and the Mississippi Valley of the United States (from Texas to Illinois), with isolated populations farther east in Kentucky, Georgia, and the

Carolinas The Carolinas are the U.S. states of North Carolina and South Carolina, considered collectively. They are bordered by Virginia to the north, Tennessee to the west, and Georgia to the southwest. The Atlantic Ocean is to the east. Combining Nort ...

. ''Solidago radula'' is a perennial herb up to 90 cm (3 feet) tall, with a

caudex A caudex (plural: caudices) of a plant is a stem, but the term is also used to mean a rootstock and particularly a basal stem structure from which new growth arises.pages 456 and 695 In the strict sense of the term, meaning a stem, "caudex" is m ...

and

rhizomes In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

. Lower leaves can be up to 10 cm (4 inches) long, leaves higher on the stem much smaller. One plant can produce as many as 260 small yellow flower heads in a branching array. The species grows in open rocky places and in dry woodlands.Flora of North America, ''Solidago radula'' Nuttall, 1834. Western rough goldenrod
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References

External links

Photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, collected in Missouri in 1987Photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, collected in Missouri in 1993Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, University of Texas
photos, description

radula The radula (, ; plural radulae or radulas) is an anatomical structure used by molluscs for feeding, sometimes compared to a tongue. It is a minutely toothed, chitinous ribbon, which is typically used for scraping or cutting food before the food ...

Plants described in 1834 Flora of the United States {{Solidago-stub