Solidago. Solidago canadensis (top left), a. Habit, b. Flower head. c. Disk flower, d. Ray flower, e. Achene. f. Leaves, upper (u) and lower (1) surfaces. Drawn by Regina O.Hughes. From Reed 1971. Solidago fistula sa (top middle). From Britton and Brown 1898. Solidago gigantea (top right). From Britton and Brown 1898. Solidago odora (bottom left). Drawn by P.N.Honychurch. Solidago sempervirens (bottom middle). From Britton and Brown 1898. Solidago stricta (bottom right). From Britton and Brown 1898.

ABSTRACT

Linnaeus used a number of methods to gain the interest of his students, among them planting a “floral calendar” at his home. He was not the first to use plants as indicators of the seasons; non-industrial people had been doing that for thousands of years. Gilmore (1919) recorded that application among the Omaha of the Missouri River region. These people considered Solidago a part of the natural almanac. He wrote: “Goldenrod served the Omaha as a mark or sign in their floral calendar. They said that its time of blooming was synchronous with the ripening of the corn; so when they were on the summer buffalo hunts on the Platte River or the Republican River, far from their homes and fields, the sight of the goldenrod as it began to bloom caused them to say, ‘Now our corn is beginning to ripen at home.’”