Mayan Goldenrod
Solidago maya Semple is native to the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico and the Maya Mountains of eastern Guatemala and central and southwestern Belize (460-2200 m). It was recently described from a small number of herbarium collections (Semple 2016) and was included in a multivariate study of the Solidago sempervirenscomplex (Semple et al. 2016) that includes S. azorica, S. maya, S. mexicana, S. paniculata, and S. sempervirens. Historically, members of the species have been treated as S. stricta sensu authors not Ait., S. mexicana, or as S. sempervirens var. mexicana. In the multivariate analysis, S. maya was most similar to some individuals of S. virgataand S. mexicana from Florida. Inflorescence variation in S. maya is like that occurring in S. mexicana, but the stem usually has few smaller upper leaves than S. mexicana. In Mexico, S. mexicana is restricted to along the coast at or near sea level from Tamaulipas to Tabasco, which is allopatric with the range of S. maya. Like other species in subsect. Maritimae, S. maya prefers moist soils of slopes, bogs and marshes.
The range of distribution of Solidago maya is illustrated on the map of ranges of Solidago sempervirens, S. mexicana and S. azorica.
The chromosome number of the S. maya is unknown.
Semple, J.C. 2016. Solidago maya (Asteraceae: Astereae: S. subsect. Maritimae) a new species of goldenrod from southern Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. Phytoneuron 2016-72: 1–8.
Semple, J.C., T. Shea, H. Rahman, Y. Ma, and K. Kornobis. 2016. A multivariate study of the Solidago sempervirens complex (Asteraceae: Astereae: S. subsect. Maritimae). Phytoneuron 2016-73. 1-31.
Last updated 1 June 2023 by J.C. Semple
© 2023 J.C. Semple, including all photographs unless otherwise indicated