Large-leaved Goldenrod, verge d’or à grandes feuilles
Solidago macrophylla Banks ex Pursh is the only member of S. sect. Solidago native to North America (northern central Ontario, much of Québec and Newfoundland, and south in the mountains of New England and New York). It was treated as a member of S. subsect. Glomeruliflorae in by Semple and Cook (2006 FNA) and included in the multivariate study of the subsection by Cook et al. (2009). The species was placed in S. ser. Macrophyllae Semple & J.B. Beck in Semple et al. (2020) based on unpublished DNA sequence data (Semple et al. 2023). In the multivariate study of S. sect. Solidago by Semple et al. (2020), all 13 specimens of S. macrophylla were assigned a posteriori to S. macrophylla with very high probability. Solidago macrophylla is the likely sister species to the entire Euasian branch of the genus (the S. virgaurea complex sensu lato). It is diploid (2n=18) but has large heads (Cook and Semple 2008).
Cook, R.E. and J.C. Semple. 2008. The cytogeography of Solidago
subsect. Glomeruliflorae (Asteraceae: Astereae). (Can. J.) Botany 86: 1488–1496.
Cook, R.E., J.C. Semple and B. Baum. 2009. A multivariate morphometric study of Solidago subsect. Glomeruliflorae (Asteraceae: Astereae). Botany. 87: 97-111.
Semple, J.C., Y. Ma, L. Tong, and M. Sorour. 2020. A multivariate morphometric analysis of Solidago sect. Solidago and S. sect. Multiradiatae (Asteraceae: Astereae). Phytoneuron 2020-38: 1–59.
Semple, J.C., McMinn-Sauder, H., Stover, M., Lemmon, A., Lemmon E., and J. B. Beck. 2023. Goldenrod herbariomics: Hybrid-sequence capture reveals the phylogeny of diploid Solidago. Amer. J. Bot. 110(7): e16164.https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.16164
Last revised 18 May 2025 by J.C. Semple
© 2025 J.C. Semple, including all photographs unless otherwise indicated
1-4. Solidago macrophylla. 1-2. Habit of large plants and heads, Algoma Dist., Ontario. 3. Details stem and leaves, Semple et al. (2020), Fig 22 A-F. 4. Heads and fruit Semple et al. (2020), Fig 22 G. and H.