| Author | (Kuntze) Fernald | |
| Distribution | Piedmont only. Note the large gap, which appears to be real, as this plant can hardly be overlooked. Weakley (2020) elevated this taxon -- formerly considered as Oligoneuron rigidum var. glabratum -- to full species status, as O. jacksonii. In 2022, he moved the Oligoneuron species back to Solidago -- this now being S. jacksonii.
VA to OH and MO, south to GA and TX. | |
| Abundance | Rare over the whole of its Piedmont range, though can be uncommon to locally common. Nonetheless, this is a State Special Concern taxon (listed by the NC Plant Conservation Program as O. jacksonii). It is not listed as this by NatureServe (= BONAP), which considers it as S. rigidum var. glabratum, with a Global Rank of G5T4. The website now uses Solidago jacksonii. | |
| Habitat | Dry to mesic mafic soils of glades, barrens, open woodlands, roadsides, and powerlines. | |
| Phenology | Flowering and fruiting late August-October. | |
| Identification | The two Stiff Goldenrods are distinct among our species in having spreading, relatively flat-topped inflorescences and elliptical stem leaves. Stems grow 3-6 feet tall from a basal rosette of stalked, lance-shape to elliptical leaves. Stem leaves are rather stalkless, elliptical, and with blunt marginal teeth. Midwestern Stiff Goldenrod (Solidago rigida) differs in its moderately to densely short-hairy stems (vs. glabrate) and short-hairy outer involucral bracts (vs. glabrous). | |
| Taxonomic Comments | In 2020, Weakley transferred Solidago rigida to Oligoneuron, following Nesom (paper in Phytoneuron 2020). While not without controversy, the recognition of the latter genus has gained favor among geneticists and botanists in recent years. However, we regard the elevation of the 2 varieties of rigida to full species status to be premature and want to see additional published research. He has proposed the name of O. jacksonii for this taxon. However, as the NC Plant Conservation Program list (2021) now shows O. jacksonii as legally State Special Concern, as is also followed by the NCNHP, the authors reluctantly felt obliged to use O. jacksonii as the taxon name here. As mentioned above, the editors now move the species name to Solidago jacksonii.
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| Other Common Name(s) | Southeastern Bold Goldenrod | |
| State Rank | S2 | |
| Global Rank | G5T4 [G4] | |
| State Status | SC-V | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | | |
| USACE-emp | | |
