About Solidago albopilosa E.L.Braun
Solidago albopilosa E.L.Braun is a perennial herb that grows one or more erect stems from a woody caudex. It typically reaches 30 to 50 centimeters (12 to 20 inches) in height, though it can grow as tall as 1 meter (39 inches). The entire plant is covered in white hairs. Its leaves have oval or spatula-shaped, serrated blades that grow up to 8 or 9 centimeters (3.1 or 3.5 inches) long and 4 or 5 centimeters (1.5 or 2 inches) wide, and leaves become smaller toward the end of the stem. The leaf blades are so thin that coarse print is readable through them. The inflorescence is a cluster holding up to 30 flower heads, each around half a centimeter (0.2 inches) long. Each flower head contains three to five tiny yellow ray florets, plus a few disc florets. The fruit, including its pappus, grows up to half a centimeter (0.2 inches) long. This species blooms from September through November. This plant is only found in Eastern Kentucky, specifically within the single river canyon of Red River Gorge. It grows in the Daniel Boone National Forest, across Menifee, Powell, and Wolfe Counties. It is restricted to rock shelters, which are open caves with overhanging rock formations. It grows in sandy soil that accumulates on the sandstone floors of these rock shelters, growing behind the drip line, in conditions that are out of direct sunlight but not in the darkest cave shadows. Common plant species found in this habitat and the surrounding forest include white baneberry (Actaea pachypoda), northern maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum), jack in the pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum), flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), yellow mandarin (Disporum lanuginosum), smooth hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens), Indian cucumber-root (Medeola virginiana), Nepalese browntop (Microstegium vimineum), partridge berry (Mitchella repens), clearweed (Pilea pumila), Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides), great rhododendron (Rhododendron maximum), poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), and maple-leaf viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium). Roundleaf catchfly (Silene rotundifolia) and littleflower alumroot (Heuchera parviflora) are particularly common associate species of Solidago albopilosa.
