Goldenrod Community

In the past couple of years, I have learned to love the lowly goldenrod. Here it is in full bloom. This little moth looks like the one we saw in the Redbud page, doesn't it? And here is a little thistle treehopper in the process of moving to the next thistle via the goldenrod. Or will it start a colony on goldenrod itself?



Here is a "brown" lacewing, really a pinkish-gold lacewing, on the siding of my woodshop in November 2015. But it starts out its life on the goldenrod as this long brown larva. It travels all over until it finds a red goldenrod aphid, which it devours hungrily. Goldenrod supports other aphids as well, but that one actually has goldenrod in its name. Here is a colony of red aphids. Note how it is bearing young.



Some creatures just pass by the goldenrod, or find it a pleasant trysting bower, like these little bees. Here is a European earwig, probably just stopping by. In 2014 I found 29 different species on the goldenrod, but not all are actual Members of the Community. But this is the (actual name) Goldenrod Soldier Beetle - it will later fly to matching flowers like Black-eyed Susan. Toward the end of the goldenrod season, the plant will be dotted with tiny Lygus plant bugs. They



Each fall, you will find many Lygus plant bugs on the goldenrod. This is the adult, and here is a possible nymph sitting in an aster. So maybe we could say the Lygus is a member of the Goldenrod and the Aster Communities.

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