With its bright yellow flowers blooming along roadsides and fields each fall, goldenrod is a familiar sight across much of North America. But is this attractive wildflower an invasive plant that’s causing harm? There’s no simple yes or no answer. Different goldenrod species vary in their potential to spread aggressively.
Goldenrod belongs to the large Asteraceae plant family and the genus Solidago There are around 120 species native to North America, some of which have become introduced and naturalized in Europe and Asia
Certain goldenrod species do exhibit invasive traits under the right conditions
-
Rapid growth and reproduction from rhizomes, forming dense clumps that crowd out other plants.
-
Prolific seed production – a single plant can produce over 100,000 tiny seeds that are easily dispersed by wind.
-
Allelopathic chemicals emitted from roots that suppress neighboring plant growth.
However, the term “invasive” is complex when applied to native species like goldenrod. Its spread is a natural process, not caused by human introduction like invasive exotics. Goldenrod fills an important ecological niche and provides habitat for pollinators and other wildlife. So is it fair to label it invasive?
How Goldenrod Spreads
Goldenrods spread both vegetatively and by seed. Their rhizomatous roots form expanding colonies of clone plants. Spread is slow – around a foot per year. Once established, it’s difficult to eliminate goldenrod patches. Any root fragments left behind regrow into new plants.
Goldenrod seed production is prolific but uneven – some plants produce abundant seeds while others produce none. Seeds are very tiny and lightweight, dispersing readily by wind. Long-distance spread facilitates goldenrod’s colonization of new territories.
Certain species like Canada goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) and late goldenrod (Solidago gigantea) are more aggressive colonizers via rhizomes and seeds. But overall, goldenrod spreads at a moderate, manageable rate compared to notorious invasive exotics.
Is Goldenrod Dominant?
Invasive species are defined by their ability to establish dominance, displacing diverse native plant communities. Overall goldenrod exhibits only moderate dominance.
It thrives best in full sun and open areas with natural or human disturbances. Thus it colonizes roadsides, fields, clearings, and abandoned land. But goldenrod generally doesn’t take over intact, diverse plant ecosystems. And it doesn’t thrive in dense shade or areas with thick tree canopies.
While some species can form sizable single-species clumps, goldenrod doesn’t usually create monoculture stands that entirely eliminate competitors. It tends to integrate into mixed wildflower communities rather than displacing them entirely.
Benefits of Goldenrod
What harm does abundant goldenrod actually cause? It is extremely valuable ecologically:
-
Provides copious nectar and pollen that support diverse pollinators like bees, butterflies, wasps, and flies.
-
Host plant for moth and butterfly caterpillars.
-
Seeds eaten by birds and small mammals.
-
Forms protective cover for wildlife.
Compared to the ecological benefits, goldenrod’s drawbacks seem minor:
-
Can crowd out pasture grasses and reduce yields in hay fields when overly abundant.
-
Creates large biomass that takes time and effort to remove.
-
Spreads rapidly into disturbed areas, sometimes unwanted.
Overall goldenrod’s advantages seem to outweigh its negative traits. From an ecological perspective, it is unfair to vilify this important native wildflower as an invasive pest.
Goldenrod Management
In areas where goldenrod growth needs controlling, management options include:
-
Selectively removing plants by hand in early spring. Take care to dig out all roots to prevent regrowth.
-
Cutting or mowing plants repeatedly during the growing season to stress them.
-
Applying selective herbicides to foliage while avoiding harm to desirable plants.
-
Replanting areas with competitive grasses and wildflowers. Diverse communities resist goldenrod encroachment.
-
Preventing goldenrod going to seed reduces spread.
With some effort and persistence, goldenrod can be curtailed. But in natural areas, acceptance of goldenrod as an abundant native wildflower may be the wisest approach. This iconic fall-bloomer provides too many ecosystem services to be vilified as an invasive pest. Through ecological perspective and appropriate management, goldenrod’s spread can be kept in check while still valuing its vital contributions to nature’s web of life.
Rea Maria Hall1Institute of Agronomy, University of Natural Resources and Life Science Vienna, Tulln an der Donau, AustriaFind articles by
Received 2021 Dec 8; Accepted 2022 Mar 3; Collection date 2022. ©2022 Hall et al.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
An invasive species called late goldenrod (Soldiago gigantea Aiton; Asteraceae) grows in a lot of different types of environments. Its long-creeping plagiotropic rhizomes enable the plant to build up dense, monospecific stands within a short time. Invasion of goldenrod can seriously mess up the natural relationships between plants, insects, and higher trophic levels, especially in nature conservation areas. This can make it harder to reach nature conservation goals. There aren’t many ways to control goldenrod in nature conservation areas, so the goal of this three-year study was to see how well three different management methods (two-time mowing, triticale cultivation, and reverse rotary cutting) worked on four different sites in the Austrian Donau-Auen National Park. Three times a year, the number and height of goldenrod shoots were measured in twelve permanent trial plots at each site to see how well the treatments worked. In addition, vegetation surveys were performed to observe the recovery potential of native plant species. Even though the three-years mowing and the triticale cultivation reduced goldenrod by 95. 6% and 97. 2% resp. We were unable to find a link between how well the treatment worked and how much trouble the control option caused. On the contrary, with a reduction of only 5. 4% in goldenrod density the most intensive treatment, the rotary cutting, showed the lowest efficiency. Two mowings per year had the most positive effects on the growth of native plants. According to the study, some management options might be able to effectively get rid of goldenrod and also help native species take hold at the same time. However, these results are only reliable for a short time. For example, as shown on site EJW one unforeseeable wild boar digging event transformed a 84. 5% reduction into a 4. 7% increase in goldenrod density. So, proper and regular monitoring is needed to be able to respond to the effects of unplanned events that can have a big effect on how plants grow and change.
These words describe late goldenrod, invasions in national parks, management intensity, biodiversity loss due to invasions, mowing schedules, rotary tillage, and changes in land use.
Ecologists and people who care about nature are very worried about these changes in community structures caused by alien invasion, especially in protected areas. Many studies have shown that natural ecosystems are less likely to be invaded by alien species because they have a lot of native species and are very natural. However, most national parks are not cut off from the landscapes around them. Instead, they are surrounded by a lot of people using them and doing many things that could damage the ecosystem and allow alien species to move into protected areas (Pauchard et al. , 2017).
This is also true for the Donau-Auen National Park in Austria. It is part of the Marchfeld Plain, which is one of Austria’s most heavily farmed areas. Also, because it’s right next to the border of Vienna, Austria, the Donau-Auen National Park is a popular place for thousands of cyclists, hikers, and nature lovers all year long.
Even before it became a national park in 1996, the land that is now the park was used for farming. Even now, farming, especially managing grasslands, is an important part of protecting nature. The Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive (92/43/EWG) lists nine types of habitats in the Donau-Auen National Park. These include semi-natural dry grassland (habitat type 6210 Annex 1), sub-pannonic steppic grassland (habitat type 6240 Annex 1), and lowland hay meadows (habitat type 6510 Annex 1). To preserve these habitat types, protected meadows management concepts (i. e. mowing schedules) were created to keep these meadows from losing their natural value, such as to brush growth (Donau-Auen National Park, 2019). However, due to changes in legal regulations (i. e. The Austrian Agri-Environmental Program (ÖPUL) has made some trade-offs between conservation and management goals over the last 15 years. For example, mowing wasn’t allowed before the middle of August so that ground-breeding birds could finish their breeding season without being disturbed. This indirectly helped the growth of goldenrod: once it sprouts, goldenrod quickly increases its biomass through vigorous shoot extension and leaf formation, which also leads to the production of rhizomes within four weeks (Weber et al. To make the plant weaker, the leaves should be cut off early (the plant should be about 30 cm tall) to lower its photosynthetic potential. This will lower the rate of assimilation, which in turn lowers the amount of assimilates sent to the rhizome. Also, in order to sprout again, plants have to remobilize assimilates from their existing rhizomes, which makes the plant even weaker (Szépligeti et al. , 2018; Nagy et al. , 2019). This change in mowing schedules that didn’t take into account the morphological patterns of plant communities eventually caused more stands of one species of goldenrod and a rapid loss of native plant communities. So, in 2016, the Austrian Federal Forests (ÖBf), which is in charge of running Donau-Auen National Park, began a three-year study with the University of Natural Resources and Life Science Vienna.
It was interesting to see how a mowing schedule was created that took into account not only the growth pattern of goldenrod but also the life cycle of native plant communities. This mowing schedule was also tested in three different types of grasslands: dry grassland, humid grassland, and nutrient-rich grassland that was being used a lot. Several studies have shown that mowing is the only practical way to manage many conservation areas because (1) it doesn’t seriously affect the soil ecosystem, (2) it can be changed to fit specific site-specific (nature conservation) goals, and (3) it can help increase biodiversity and ecosystem services. e. , prevention of undesireable succession events, temporal adjustment to provide flowerage for wild bees etc. (Smart, Larson & Bauman, 2012; Pál et al. , 2015; Szépligeti et al. , 2018; Nagy et al. , 2021).
An additional goal of the study was to test the efficiacy of other management options. Recently, a few studies showed that flaming, flooding, or grazing can greatly reduce the number of goldenrod and other competitive invaders (Le Bagousse-Pinguet, Gross , 2017; Nagy et al. , 2019; Coughlan et al. , 2020). But in nature preserves like the Donau-Auen National Park, there aren’t many management options because of the law, strict planning rules, and limited management guidelines. With that in mind, the only two management options that could be used in this study were triticale farming and reverse rotary cutting. Even though goldenrod grew quickly above ground, its rhizomes gave it a huge edge in the fierce competition for water and food. Consequently, grassland mixtures and young trees were regularly prevented from establishment. It was shown by Gala-Czekaj that Synowiec Therefore, both treatments should quickly get rid of goldenrod to make it easier for grasslands and young trees to grow.
There is a park called Donau-Auen that goes from the northeastern part of Vienna to the border with Slovakia at the mouth of the March River. The total area comprises 9. 300 ha, consisting of 65% alluvial forest, 20% water areas and 15% managed and unmanaged grassland. The utilization concept of these areas comply to three different zonings (Table 1).
| Zone | Management |
|---|---|
| Nature reserve zone | No landuse and no measures which would have impact on environment, landscape or ecological inventory |
| Temporary measures are only allowed if they support the natural development | |
| Nature reserve zone with management actions | In general, there are no measures taken, except they support the achievement of nature conservation aims (i.e., mowing of grassland to preserve biodiversity and/or habitats for valuable plant species) |
| Outer zones | All water ways and canals, touristic areas as well as cultivated areas (field) and buildings like administrative offices or flood protections dams |
Cultivation and reverse rotary cutting
The most intensive methods had the most ups and downs on the number of goldenrod plants and the least positive effect on the variety of life in these areas. In the first year, triticale cultivation on GW only caused a comparably low reduction of goldenrod by 58. 5%. This poor management success could be explained by a combination of site exposition and unfavourable weather condition. The northern part of site is adjacent to a forest and is therefore more shaded and windless. Because of this, the soil conditions and humidity levels were different in the brighter, more open southern parts of the site. It rained a lot until the end of October 2016 (Table 3), so planting had to be put off over and over again until the soil conditions were right for a tractor to get to the site at the beginning of November. At the same time, the northern part of the site had some very heavy soil compaction from the tractor tires because it was wetter there than in other parts. Additionally, many triticale plants were not able to build up enough biomass before winter because they were planted too late. As a result, frost damaged some young plants and killed them.
The average number of goldenrod shoots dropped by 97 after the second triticale cultivation, which happened earlier and when the soil was better. 2%.
In contrast, reverse rotary cutting on GO had almost no effect on the goldenrod density. The milling not only killed all the plants, even ones that might have been competitors, but it also broke up the goldenrod rhizome even more. Since winter 2017/18 was mild, it’s likely that the rhizomes were not badly damaged by the frost (Weber ). Additionally, due to the outstanding cold, March 2018 (monthly average: 2. 3 °C) germination and juvenile development of indigenous plant species was delayed. Consequently, native species had no initial advantage over the goldenrod. This was exacerbated by the sharp temperature increase in April 2018 (monthly average: 14. 7 °C), which aligned the germination time of native plant species and goldenrod. Similar effects with high management intensities were obtained by Nagy et al. (2019). They stressed that intensive disturbance regimes made the already low diversity worse by removing potential competitors, which made it easier for goldenrod to spread, just like it did on GO.
Different management can help effectively cut down goldenrod stands in a nature conservation area, as the study’s results showed. For example, mowing every three years for a short time can effectively lower the number of goldenrod plants and also help native species take hold. Still, if we want to increase the number of species and the variety of communities that live there, we need to take a long-term view. This is because managing goldenrod in natural settings can be very affected by things that are hard to predict, like weather and wild animal disturbances. This is especially true for nature conservation areas that don’t have many management options because of strict planning rules, laws, and management guidelines. So, we suggest a site-specific management plan that not only helps reduce the amount of goldenrod that grows, but also has a positive effect on species diversity. This makes the community stronger against future invasions.
We want to thank Franz-Josef Kovacs and Robert Knapp, both of whom work for ÖBf AG as operational project managers, as well as the staff at the Experimental Farm Groß-Enzersdorf, which is part of the University of Natural Resources and Life Science Vienna. We would like to thank Susanne Stickler in particular for her support and help during the field work.
The study was funded by the Austrian Federal Forests (ÖBf AG)—National Park Administration Donau-Auen, Orth an der Donau. The funders had nothing to do with planning the study, collecting and analyzing the data, making the decision to publish, or writing the manuscript.
3 Truths and a Lie About Goldenrod – Super Fall Blooming Native Plant
FAQ
Is goldenrod native or invasive?
Should I get rid of goldenrod?
Is goldenrod good or bad?
How do you stop goldenrod from spreading?
Are goldenrods invasive?
Many countries – including Germany, Poland, France, Slovenia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and the United Kingdom – have laws aimed at controlling invasive species. In the same countries, scientists and government agencies consider Canadian goldenrod invasive.
Are goldenrod plants native to North America?
Goldenrod is a perfect example of how beautiful and resilient native plants are—they are always the best choice for our gardens. There are 75 species of goldenrod native to North America. Here are seven species commonly found in local native plant nurseries. A goldenrod for shade!
Are goldenrod plants beautiful?
Native plants are gorgeous! Goldenrod is a perfect example of how beautiful and resilient native plants are—they are always the best choice for our gardens. There are 75 species of goldenrod native to North America. Here are seven species commonly found in local native plant nurseries.
Are there Goldenrods in a prairie plant community?
Apart from the hay fever myth, though, there are some prairie ecologists who are struggling with how to categorize and treat goldenrod in a prairie plant community. There are, of course, many species of goldenrod – including some very rare prairie and savanna species. Most people are fine with categorizing those as species in need of conservation.
Is goldenrod a weed?
Image by Goran Horvat from Pixabay Goldenrod, a member of Asteraceae, blooms in late summer through early fall and is often found in dry open areas and along roadsides. While often dismissed as simply a weed, this showy native North American perennial, genus Solidago, has a lot to offer.
Are goldenrods good for wildlife?
More than 100 species of goldenrod native to North America bloom from late summer into fall, providing nectar and pollen for wildlife long after many plants have stopped flowering. “It’s one of the best herbaceous native perennials for attracting and feeding wildlife,” Tallamy says.