Species
+

Solidago flexicaulis L.

Zig-zag Goldenrod, Zig-zag or broadleaved goldenrod, broad-leaved goldenrod, broadleaf goldenrod

Climate known 70 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Solidago flexicaulis, the broadleaved goldenrod, or zigzag goldenrod, is a North American species of herbaceous perennial plants in the family Asteraceae. It is native to the eastern and central parts of the United States and Canada, from Nova Scotia west to Ontario and the Dakotas, and south as far as Alabama and Louisiana. It grows in a variety of habitats including mesic upland forests, well drained floodplain forests, seepage swamp hummocks, and rocky woodlands.

Text from Wikipedia, “Solidago flexicaulis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Solidago

Solidago, commonly called goldenrod, is a genus of about 100 to 120 species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. Most are herbaceous perennial species found in open areas such as meadows, prairies, and savannas. They are mostly native to North America, including Mexico; a few species are native to South America and Eurasia. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Solidago”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
L.
Native to
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario +32
Wild records
1889 in range· 612 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Jul, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1061mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 108 mm (CHELSA)
Light
9–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to November in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1061 mm a year, wettest June at 108 mm, driest February at 65 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -13.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Aster latifolius Kuntze; Doria flexicaulis (L.) Lunell; Solidago flexicaulis f. flexicaulis; Solidago flexicaulis f. subincisa Vict. & J.Rousseau; Solidago flexicaulis var. ciliata DC. and 6 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to November in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (773 mm of 1061 mm) takes 8 months, April to November. Mean temperature moves 27.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to May.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1061 mm a year, wettest June at 108 mm, driest February at 65 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1061 mm a year at the habitat, 773 mm of it April to November. Wettest month June at 108 mm, driest February at 65 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 845 mm to 1366 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 8, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -13.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -13.3 °C, the absolute minimum -23.2 °C, about 103 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 23.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -9.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells -14.8 °C to -4.5 °C), warmest day 25.9 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -13.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from -2 °C in Jan to 26 °C in Jul; mean night from -10 °C in Jan to 18 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1061 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1304 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -23.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 23.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°frost23.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-23.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 9–40RH 56–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1304 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-2 / -6–4-0 / -4–65 / 2–1112 / 8–1719 / 15–2224 / 20–2726 / 23–2925 / 23–2821 / 18–2414 / 12–187 / 4–121 / -3–6
Night °C-10 / -15–-5-9 / -13–-3-4 / -7–13 / -0–69 / 6–1215 / 12–1718 / 15–2017 / 15–2013 / 11–167 / 4–101 / -3–4-5 / -11–-2
Rain mm72 / 26–9965 / 27–9371 / 46–11089 / 71–11399 / 83–127108 / 84–130106 / 85–13198 / 82–12596 / 82–12087 / 70–12390 / 54–12180 / 34–117
DLI11 / 10–1418 / 17–2026 / 24–2732 / 30–3337 / 35–3840 / 37–4139 / 37–4134 / 32–3626 / 24–2918 / 16–2111 / 10–149 / 8–12
RH %62 / 58–6560 / 57–6357 / 56–6056 / 54–5857 / 55–5958 / 57–6159 / 57–6160 / 58–6260 / 58–6259 / 57–6160 / 58–6362 / 59–65

Each figure is the median across the 1304 grid cells holding the 1799 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 896:1856 (45.175, -87.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -23.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -13.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 23.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1304 distinct grid cells holding the 1799 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 896:1856 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 45.00_-86.875, lapse-corrected +6 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 183 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNew Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia
Map marker43.634, -79.485 · in the densest population, 1129 records (60% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1889 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 612 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 24 km away. 1 record outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 90 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1889 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Solidago flexicaulisSolidago flexicaulisSolidago flexicaulisSolidago flexicaulisSolidago flexicaulisSolidago flexicaulisSolidago flexicaulisSolidago flexicaulis

Photographs: (c) Sandy Wolkenberg, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (5).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Solidago flexicaulis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

The Vegetation of the Ravines of the Southern Finger Lakes, New York, Region
David C. Lewin (1974) · The American Midland Naturalist
A multivariate morphometric analysis of Solidago subsect. Glomeruliflorae (Asteraceae: Astereae)
Rachel E. Cook, John C. Semple, Bernard R. Baum (2009) · Botany
Experimental evaluation of four protocols for assessing white-tailed deer browse intensity
Brendan R. Quirion, Bernd Blossey (2023) · Ecological Indicators
Do Wolves Protect Forests? Investigating the Link Between Wolf Density, Deer Browse, and Plant Recovery
Elaine M. Brice, Jennifer Price Tack, Amanda M. McGraw, Bernd Blossey (2025) · Ecology and Evolution
Plants of Fargo, North Dakota
O. A. Stevens (1961) · The American Midland Naturalist
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2023) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Notes on Leaf-Mining Chrysomelidae (Coleoptera) in New England
Charles S. Eiseman (2015) · The Coleopterists Bulletin
Among-site differences in seedling size, growth, and survivorship in Solidago flexicaulis
Pam G. Krannitz, Ken Carey (1988) · Canadian Journal of Botany

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Solidago 8 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 63 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.