Here is a feather duster of glowing gold, and a close rival of the elegant Showy or Noble Golden-rod. It is probably the largest, showiest, and most common of them all - if not, indeed, the handsomest. It is exceedingly democratic, and grows vigorously wherever it elects to drop a root. In thickets and rich, open soils it is at its best, although it blossoms serenely in dry soil in fields, and along dusty roadsides, from July to October. The tall, stout, rough stem is thickly covered with minute hairs, and grows from three to eight feet high. At the top it branches in every direction, with slender, drooping, pyramiding stems that are broadly and thickly set on the upper side, with the tiny, bright yellow, three to seven rayed flowers. The stalk is crowded with the narrow, tapering, thin-textured and sharply toothed, long, three-veined leaves. The basal leaves are broader, and have slender stems. They are usually smooth above and finely hairy beneath. Canada Golden-rod flourishes from Newfoundland to the Northwest Territory, and British Columbia, southward to Florida and Arizona.

CANADA GOLDEN-ROD. Solidago canadensis.