Solidago simplex Kunth

Plants 1–9 dm from a branched caudex, essentially glabrous except for some puberulence in the infl (or more hairy in var. gillmanii); lvs basally disposed, the larger ones narrowly oblanceolate to narrowly obovate, 2–30 cm × 4–40 mm, toothed or subentire, generally acute or acutish, often irregularly ciliolate-margined; cauline lvs progressively reduced, mostly lance-elliptic to oblanceolate or linear; infl racemiform to dense and thyrsoid, or even ample and branched, but not secund, its lvs mostly reduced and inconspicuous; invol bracts imbricate, acutish or obtuse, often glutinous; rays 7–10; achenes short-hairy; 2n=18, 36, 54, in ours mostly 36. Rock-crevices and sand-dunes; N.S. to n. and sw. Va. and reputedly Ky., w. to Mich. and n. Ind., and across s. Can. to the cordillera and the Pacific. Our plants are ssp. randii (Porter) Ringius, with 3 vars. Robust plants, 3–9 dm, often more hairy than the other vars., growing on sand dunes along Lake Michigan and w. Lake Huron, with large heads (invol 6–9 mm) in a long, often branched infl, are var. gillmanii (A. Gray) Ringius. (S. deamii; S. gillmanii) Of the remaining, more widely distributed plants, those with the basal lvs mostly 3–8 times as long as wide, tending to be sharply toothed, the infl tending to be compact and thyrsoid, are var. monticola (Porter) Ringius. (S. randii; S. maxonii), while those with the basal lvs 7–10 times as long as wide, tending to be subentire, and the infl tending to be loose and subracemiform, are var. racemosa (Greene) Ringius (S. racemosa).