Solidago sempervirens var. sempervirens
Origin: New Hampshire
Improvement status: Wild
Seeds per packet: ~50
BOTANICAL SAMPLE - NOT GERMINATION TESTED
Life cycle: Perennial
Goldenrods are the ubiquitous yellow flowers brightening fields and roadsides across North America each fall. Seaside goldenrod is their unexpected cousin, growing on sand-dunes and seawalls in coastal areas from maritime Canada south to northern Mexico (it has also naturalized in quite a few inland areas as well, including the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys and the lower Great Lakes). The young spring leaves — smoother and fleshier than other goldenrod species — are edible for people, and the fall-blooming flowers are an important nectar source for a variety of beneficial insects, including migrating monarch butterflies (which historically could be found in huge clouds in coastal areas during their fall migration). We consider this species to have some of the most beautiful goldenrod flowers, with curling whorls of golden yellow exploding out of the tops in all directions.
The Latin name of the goldenrod genus, "Solidago," basically means "to make whole," a reference to the myriad medicinal uses for which the plants were employed by indigenous people. The species name of seaside goldenrod, "sempervirens," means always living, not only because this species is perennial (like other goldenrods), but because it generally maintains some green leaves throughout the winter, even in the colder northern reaches of its range. This evergreen tendency is unusual among goldenrods, and also makes the plant immensely valuable to a variety of dune-nesting shorebirds including killdeers, willets, black skimmers, and the federally endangered piping plover. This native species is also frequently planted for dune stabilization projects.
Our seeds were collected by EFN co-founder Nate Kleinman along the New Hampshire coast, just south of Portsmouth.
GROWING TIPS: Seeds germinate best following at least 60 days of cold-moist stratification, making it a great candidate for fall sowing outdoors. Seeds need light to germinate, so surface sow. Prefers sandy or poor soil, but will also grow in better soil (sometimes all that nutrition makes the plants so big they fall over!).
NOTE: The photo of the green foliage with no flowers is from Plant Image Library and is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. The photo of the short flowering plants (in Newfoundland, Canada), comes from Ryan Hodnett and is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license, and the photo with the beach and ocean in the background (on Long Beach Island, New Jersey) is from Famartin and is shared under the same license. Others are ours or in the public domain.
