This Sunny Yellow Flower Helps Fall Pollinators and Landscapes

Oligoneuron riddellii’s distinct grass-like leaves and bright flowers jazz up the garden in the upper Midwest and Central Plains

Benjamin VogtSeptember 3, 2016

Houzz Contributor. I'm a big advocate for bringing the tallgrass prairie into our urban lives -- only 1% remains, making it more threatened than the Amazon rainforest yet also as effective at sequestering CO2. I own Monarch Gardens LLC, a prairie garden design firm based in Nebraska and working with clients across the Midwest. I also speak nationally on native plants, sustainable design, and landscape ethics while hosting online classes. I'm the author of A New Garden Ethic: Cultivating Defiant Compassion for an Uncertain Future. In the coming years we want to restore a 40+ acre prairie and host an artist residency program.

Oh, how I love goldenrods. This group of plants tops the list when it comes to providing pollen and nectar to fall insects. If you have a goldenrod, you’ll see both large numbers and a diversity of pollinators hard at work. Those pollinators might be preparing to overwinter, migrating through or, in the case of some native bee species, collecting food for their young to eat as they mature over the coming months.

Oligoneuron riddellii, also known as Riddell’s goldenrod, stands out among goldenrods because it is shorter in stature and has foliage unlike any other goldenrod — offering great design potential.

Dan Mullen

Botanical name: Oligoneuron riddellii (formerly Solidago riddellii)
Common name: Riddell’s goldenrod
Origin: Native from western Minnesota south to northern Arkansas and east to Ohio and Michigan
Where it will grow: Hardy to minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 40 degrees Celsius (USDA zones 4 to 8; find your zone)
Water requirement: Medium to moist soil; prefers consistent moisture
Light requirement: Full sun to 25 percent shade
Mature size: 2 to 3 feet tall and wide
Benefits and tolerances:Attracts pollinators
Seasonal interest: Blooms in late summer to early fall
When to plant: Plant potted or bare-root plants in midspring to late fall; plant seeds in late fall through midwinter.

Dan Mullen

Distinguishing traits. Riddell’s goldenrod and stiff goldenrod (Oligoneuron rigidum) are the only goldenrods with dome-like flower clusters. Riddell’s goldenrod looks like a shortgrass for most of the growing season. The umbels (flower clusters) start to develop come late summer.

How to use it. It’s a perfect plant for moist, even marshy, conditions. The water’s edge is an ideal location, although a medium-moisture soil can work too. It could do well in a low area in the garden that floods during rains or even in a rain garden.

Try it in masses or drifts along a stream, or among similar-size plants or shortgrasses like sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula), to get the full effect of its foliage.

7 Ways to Use Drifts and Masses in Your Garden

Dan Mullen

Planting notes. Riddell’s goldenrod actually seems to prefer a clay soil that is more alkaline, with a pH of 7 or 8. It will spread somewhat moderately by rhizomes in an ideal moisture condition with full sun and loamy soil, but it is not aggressive like Canadian goldenrod (S. canadensis). I’ve grown Riddell’s goldenrod in medium-moisture clay in full sun and never seen it move, much to my dismay.

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