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Canada Goldenrod

Canada Goldenrod

Solidago canadensis

Identify the Canada Goldenrod from a photo and log your finds with Florapass.

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How common: Very common

Invasive alien species – remove it if you can

Canada Goldenrod is a tall, long‑lived plant from North America with showy yellow plumes made of many tiny flower heads. It often escapes gardens and spreads along roadsides and other open ground, becoming invasive in many parts of Europe and Asia.

Did you know?

  • Classified in Finland as a nationally harmful alien species.
  • Introduced as a garden plant, it now spreads widely in many countries.

About the species

Identification

30–150 cm tall. Stem stout, usually unbranched, with soft hairs (especially above the base). Leaves crowded along the stem, long and narrow with sparse sharp teeth, getting smaller upwards; edges and underside veins feel slightly rough. The flowering top forms a broad cone: many side branches arch downward and carry countless tiny yellow, daisy‑like heads. Later it bears small dry seeds with a silky tuft for wind spread. Compared with native European goldenrod, this plume is wider and more arching; giant goldenrod usually has smooth, often bluish‑coated stems, while Canada goldenrod stems feel hairy. In Finland it flowers from August to October.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

yards and roadsides, shore

Flowering

Aug–Oct

About the habitat

Open, sunny and often disturbed places such as roadsides, railways, waste ground, old fields and the edges of gardens; it tolerates a range of soils. Established escape, most widespread in southern Finland (especially Uusimaa, Southwest Finland, Kymenlaakso, South Häme and Päijät‑Häme), also in Central Finland, Åland and along the Ostrobothnian coast up to Oulu; spreading.

Sources

Photo: Georg Slickers, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Solidago canadensis 20050815 248.jpg

Text: Pinkka: IPS-177 Fennoscandian flora - Sagina-Symphytum, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39730

Text: Pinkka: Vieraslajien tunnistus - Kanadanpiisku, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39730

Text: FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39730

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanadanpiisku

See also