Tall Goldenrod

Solidago altissima

KeystoneHosts 1 caterpillarBird foodPollinator plant

Growing it

When	Flowers August to September; fruits September to October
Type	wildflower
Sun	Full sun
Water	Low
Soil	pH 5.5–7.5
Hardiness	zone 3–9
Mature height	1.5 m
Mature spread	0.9 m
Spacing	0.6 m
Years to maturity	2
Bloom	Aug–Sep
Flower colour	Yellow not verified, a genus-level estimate
In bloom	August September
Fruit	Sep–Oct
Native to	AB, SK

lance-shaped leaves about 10 cm long

Where it has been recorded

BothSpecimensObservations

56 squares of about 28 km, each holding at least one record. A square is not a claim that the plant grows throughout it, and an unshaded square is unrecorded rather than empty. Darker squares hold more records, which follows roads and towns as much as it follows the plant. 56 herbarium specimens and 19 field observations this project may redraw. A filled dot is a pressed sheet somebody can re-examine; a hollow ring is a photograph identified by community agreement. Where the dots are dense is where people have looked, not where the plant is commonest, and empty ground is unsurveyed rather than unoccupied. How this map is made.

Which ecoregions the records fall in

Moist Mixed Grassland south AB / SK: 36 records, high confidence
Fescue Grassland south AB: 16 records, medium confidence
Aspen Parkland central AB / SK: 15 records, medium confidence
Boreal Transition central AB / SK: 7 records, low confidence
Mixed Grassland south AB / SK: 7 records, low confidence
Mid-Boreal Uplands central AB / SK: 3 records, low confidence
Northern Continental Divide south AB: 3 records, low confidence

These are counts of records collected somewhere in the region, which is the resolution of the evidence: the map above shows where inside it. A region with 3 records is not the same claim as one with three hundred, so the count travels with the region. A region missing from this list means nobody has recorded it there, which is not the same as the plant being absent. Records within 900 m of a border count for neither side, because the border is not drawn finely enough to say which one they are on. Source: GBIF occurrence search + PRESERVED_SPECIMEN pass, retrieved 2026-08-24. Boundaries digitised from the National Ecological Framework for Canada v2.2 (Ecological Stratification Working Group 1995), simplified to about 900 m for display: an outline is accurate to roughly a kilometre, not to the metre. How these counts are made.

See every observation, live and current, on GBIF or iNaturalist.

Documented animals

51 documented relationships.

nectar for

Aerial Yellowjacket Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Ancistrocerus adiabatus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Andrena hirticincta Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Arctic Yellowjacket Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Bald-faced Hornet Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Bicyrtes ventralis Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Black-and-yellow Lichen Moth Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Black-horned Tree Cricket Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Black-shouldered Drone Fly Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Brown-belted Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
Calligrapher Fly Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Ceratina calcarata Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Cerceris deserta Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Colletes simulans Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Confusing Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
Dingy Cutworm Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Drone Fly Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Eastern Calligrapher Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Eastern Tailed-Blue Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Ectemnius lapidarius Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Epistrophe grossulariae Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Euodynerus foraminatus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Eupeodes americanus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Goldenrod Soldier Beetle Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Gray Hairstreak Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Half-black Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
Lithophane bethunei Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Megacyllene robiniae Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Melissodes druriellus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Monarch Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Northern Paper Wasp Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Philanthus gibbosus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Physocephala furcillata Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Pimpla pedalis Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Ponometia candefacta Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Spotted Cucumber Beetle Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Symmorphus canadensis Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Tricoloured Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Variegated Fritillary Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Vespula germanica Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Vespula maculifrons Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Xestia c-nigrum Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Xestia normaniana Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Yellow-banded Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
Yellow-collared Scape Moth Specimen records from iNaturalist.org

caterpillar host for

Asteromyia carbonifera Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Golden Northern Bumble Bee GBIF dataset 03fec74b-695e-4de5-bbe6-ae735fe4ab31
Goldenrod Gall Fly Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Goldenrod Gall Moth Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
Red-belted Bumble Bee GBIF dataset 9c3f2c77-7980-4e76-86a9-525221c85074

seed for

American Goldfinch Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Also worth knowing

Safety

Toxicity not assessed, absence of a warning is not a guarantee of safety

Edible parts

Leaves, flowers

Buying it

About $8–$16 per plant (estimate), usually stocked by garden centres. Estimate (herb default); AB retail as of 2026

Where these numbers came from

Flower detail: not verified, a genus-level estimate