Solidago velutinaDC.

three-nerve goldenrodthreenerve goldenrod

WFO wfo-0000024082 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Solidago velutina, photographed by George Williams
fig. a George Williams, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-01-13 / obs. 175865846
Solidago velutina, photographed by George Williams
fig. b George Williams, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 164859750
Solidago velutina, photographed by Amy
fig. c Amy, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 162475614
Solidago velutina, photographed by Daniel S.
fig. d Daniel S., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 154863128
Solidago velutina, photographed by José Gerardo Velasco
fig. e José Gerardo Velasco, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 137203984
Solidago velutina, photographed by Amy
fig. f Amy, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 134417443
Solidago velutina, photographed by George Williams
fig. g George Williams, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 116241152
Solidago velutina, photographed by George Williams
fig. h George Williams, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 104889149

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 14 botanical countries

Regions where Solidago velutina is native: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Wyoming ArizonaCaliforniaColoradoIdahoMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SouthwestNevadaNew MexicoOregonTexasWyoming
Native distribution of Solidago velutina, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Arizona ARI NORTHERN AMERICA
California CAL
Colorado COL
Idaho IDA
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southwest MXS
Nevada NEV
New Mexico NWM
Oregon ORE
Texas TEX
Wyoming WYO

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 325 in flower of 370 examined

Peak flowering in Mar. Each bar is the share of Solidago velutina observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 325 of 370 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 17 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Aster alamani Kuntze
  • Aster californicus (Nutt.) Kuntze
  • Aster sparsiflorus (A.Gray) Kuntze
  • Aster velutinus Kuntze
  • Solidago californica var. aperta L.F.Hend.
  • Solidago canadensis var. arizonica A.Gray
  • Solidago garrettii Rydb.
  • Solidago howellii Wooton & Standl.
  • Solidago mollis Rothr.
  • Solidago scabrida DC.
  • Solidago sparsiflora A.Gray
  • Solidago sparsiflora var. sparsiflora
  • Solidago sparsiflora var. subcinerea A.Gray
  • Solidago spathulata var. subcinerea A.Gray
  • Solidago trinervata Greene
  • Solidago velutina subsp. sparsiflora (A.Gray) Semple
  • Solidago velutina var. velutina

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.