Virginia ecotype
- Duration: Perennial
- Habit: Arching, clumping, naturalizing
- Size: 1 - 3 ft. high / wide
- Flowering time: July, Aug, Sep, Oct
- Bloom color: Yellow
- Habitat: Dry savannas and dappled woods, pinelands, hillsides
- Moisture: Average to dry, well draining
- Light: Full to part sun, best performance in full sun
- Soils: Clay, loamy, sandy, gravely; adaptable so long as well draining
- Uses: prairie restoration, pollinator garden, slopes and hillsides, dry to average dappled woodland gardens, small and short gardens
Solidago pinetorum (Pineywoods goldenrod)
Fall Sale
Small's goldenrod, also called pineland goldenrod or the pineywoods goldenrod, is one of the earliest flowering goldenrods of the Virginia region. With a narrow native range restricted to Virginia and North Carolina, this goldenrod is rare elsewhere in the states. It occurs in acidic soils of pine-dominated forests and hillsides, hence the common name.
Pineland goldenrod can be distinguished from other goldenrods by its shorter height, up to 3 feet or less, and its clumping rather than rhizomatous habit. Among goldenrods this species is polite in its spread, which occurs prilarily through reseeding on open ground.
Its narrow and smooth leaves resemble common garden groundcovers like liriope, until they bloom with long arching stems tipped with brush-like panicles of bright small yellow blooms. Flowering begins as early as June and usually hits full swing in July. By fall, the seedheads tend to have a brown/buttery color compared to the snowy white fluff of other goldenrods.
Goldenrod blooms support many uncommon and rare specialist bees, which only feed on the nectar and pollen of a select few flowering plants to survive. In particular small mining bees are attracted to the blooms. The genus is also considered a keystone plant, supporting a wide range of native insects as a larval host species.
Pineywoods goldenrod grows in poor and sandy soils of roadsides and hillsides, and it plays well in a wild meadow or dry prairie setting with other goldenrods, asters, native grasses, and drought tolerant wildflowers. The species is adapted to woodland edges and dry hillsides, so it can take part sun and steep typography. So long as the soil is well draining and not soggy, this plant will thrive.