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  What do "small," "medium" and "large" numbers mean?
They refer to how many insects were collected per meter square in a 30 second sample. Small means less than 2 insects; medium indicates 2 to 10 insects, and large suggests greater than 10 insects.

home> native plant fact sheets> riddell's goldenrod

Enhancing Beneficial Insects with Native Plants
Riddell's goldenrod
 Oligoneuron riddellii (Frank ex Riddell) Rydb.
formerly Solidago riddellii

Group: Dicot
Family: Asteraceae (aster)
Growth Habit: Forb/herb
Duration: Perennial
U.S. Nativity: Native

Natural Enemies Attracted: Large numbers of Orius insidiousus. Medium numbers of Chalcidoidea, Vespidae polistes, and Coccinellidae. Small numbers of Salticidae, Cynipoidea, Plagiognathus politus, Braconidae, Ichneumonidae, Tachinidae, Thomisidae, and Empididae.

Pests Attracted: Large numbers of lygus bugs. Medium numbers of leaf beetles and leafhoppers. Small numbers of thrips, aphids and froghoppers.


Bees attracted: High numbers (more than 5 bees per meter square in a 30 second sample) of bees including yellow-faced bees, Andrenid bees, sweat bees, small and large carpenter bees, digger bees, and bumble bees; also highly attractive to honey bees.

Species Notes: This plant produced many clusters of small golden flowers Plants filled in well, grew 2-4 ft tall, and flowered throughout September. In addition to beneficial insects, many insects were seen at this plant, including locust borer. This was the fifth most attractive late season plant to natural enemies, with four times as many natural enemies as the grass control.
About the Plant Species Graph: Average number of beneficial insects collected at each plant species the week before, during, and after peak bloom, for plant species blooming from mid-August through early October (+ standard error). Riddell's goldenrod (Solidago riddellii) boxed in red. Bars for natural enemies are in green, bars for bees are in yellow. Bars for native plants are solid and nonnative plants are striped. The black line on the top graph shows the number of natural enemies in grass with no flowering plants (grass control). Plants are listed in order of peak bloom.
graph
Habitat: Full sun to partial sun, and fairly dry to very wet locations. Naturally occurring in wet prairies, fens, shore meadows, and on low ground along rivers and around lakes. Map indicates plant distribution by state.

Cultivation and Management: Can be grown from seed (flowers in second or third year) or plug material (flowers in first or second year). We saw no evidence of deer or other vertebrate browsing on this species.

Availability: Species is available as seed, plug or container grown material from various native plant nurseries. Michigan Native Plant Producers Association

For more information: USDA-NRCS PLANTS database
This fact sheet prepared by: Doug Landis, Anna Fiedler, Department of Entomology, Michigan State University. Please note: The information presented at this web site should be considered a guideline to be adapted for your situation. MSU makes no warranty about the use of the information presented here. Read disclaimer.
Web site information prepared by: Doug Landis, Anna Fiedler, Rufus Isaacs and Julianna Tuell, Department of Entomology, Michigan State University. Funding support: USDA SARE with Project GREEEN, the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, MSU Extension, and the MSU IPM Program.
Web developer: J.N. Landis, MSU IPM Program. Updated: 11/21/06