Prairie Goldenrod

Description: Hardy, herbaceous, North American summer-flowering perennial; large, showy heads of bright yellow flower clusters; leaves turn dusty rose in fall; attracts butterflies, hummingbirds, goldfinches, and other songbirds

Historical Notes: This showy member of the Aster family occurs naturally in prairies, meadows, and savannas from New England to Saskatchewan, and south to Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. Introduced to Western science in 1710 and named by Linnaeus, Bernard McMahon recommended it along with several other goldenrod species in his 1806 book, The American Gardener's Calendar.¹ William Cobbett, the English pamphleteer and farmer, wondered about its ornamental use. He wrote:

Nay, that accursed stinking thing, with a yellow flower, called the "Plain-Weed," which is the torment of the neighbouring farmer, has been, above all plants in this world, chosen as the most conspicuous ornament of the front of the King of England's grandest palace, that of Hampton-Court, where, growing in a rich soil to the height of five or six feet, it, under the name of "Golden Rod," nods over the whole length of the edge of a walk, three quarters of a mile long and, perhaps, thirty feet wide, the most magnificent, perhaps, in Europe.²

Prairie goldenrod can be used in wildflower plantings and provides food and habitat for wildlife.

- Peggy Cornett, n.d.

Further Sources

• Dutton, Joan Parry. Plants of Colonial Williamsburg. Williamsburg: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1979.
• Leighton, Ann. American Gardens in the Eighteenth Century. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1986.
• Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants.