Goldenrod Observed

by Amie Adams

Bernt Olaf Wolden (1886-1968) was a naturalist, botanist, and birder known as “The Observer.”

Bernt Olaf Wolden (Photo courtesy of Amie Adams)

Writing under this pen name, he contributed a regular column called Nature Notes to The Estherville Daily News for almost forty years. In his column, Wolden educated and delighted readers with stories and lessons on plants and birds, and with his many observations of the natural world. In addition to his newspaper column, Wolden published papers with American Botanist and The Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science.

He was a member of the Iowa Academy of Science, a researcher at Iowa Lakeside Laboratory, and a member of the Iowa Ornithologists Union. In an interview for The Estherville Daily News, he cited his upbringing on a farm at High Lake in Emmet County as the source of his passion for the natural world. He was free to explore the lakes, groves, and prairies during these formative years and learned as much from the land as he did from his textbooks and schoolteachers.

Together, the experiences of his rural childhood instilled in him a lifelong desire to know, to love, and to care for the natural world. His stories offer a window into a pivotal time in Iowa’s environmental history and remind today’s readers of the urgency with which we must work to protect the places we love. As you enter into these stories from Septembers past, ask yourself, what stories are unfolding around me today? 

The Goldenrod Deserves the Title “Miss America”

Photo by Christina Rumpf, Unsplash

September 4, 1930

The goldenrod is a peculiar American flower. We may say ‘the’ goldenrod, for although there are numerous species, almost any of them can be recognized at sight as a goldenrod if we are familiar with the general appearance of the common species. There are about 125 species total, all of which are native only to the Americas—except two or three which belong to Europe. About 85 of these are found in the United States. No wonder there has been a strong sentiment in favor of making it the national flower when it is so almost entirely American in its distribution.

Goldenrods are mostly tall herbs with wand-like stems, usually with large terminal panicles of numerous small heads of yellow flowers. The early species—beginning to bloom in July—are followed by later-flowering varieties which continue to bloom until frost. In September they blossom everywhere on pastured prairie hillsides, in odd corners, in ditches, and along fences.

Probably no flower has received as much attention from American poets as has the goldenrod, and many of the allusions are to its golden plumes. Referring to its role of roadside flower are lines like “Along the roadside / like the flowers of gold / that tawny Incas for their gardens wrought / heavy with sunshine drops the goldenrod.” (John Greenleaf Whittier.) But it is also a flower of hills and wooded slopes, so someone else sings, “How deepening bright / like mounting flame doth burn / the goldenrod upon a thousand hills!” (Richard Watson Gilder.) 

In our vicinity are found eight species of goldenrod. Some of these are difficult to distinguish from each other, but a few are fairly easily recognized when some of their characteristics are pointed out. The Canada and the smooth goldenrods are our most common and our tallest species, growing almost everywhere. Perhaps the most distinct species is the stiff goldenrod of dry prairies and open woods and banks. This is quite stout with thick, rough leaves and large heads in a dense cluster. Along high wooded banks and shady slopes grow a woodland species with wide leaves and flowers in clusters in the axis of the upper leaves instead of in a terminal panicle. A person not familiar with it might not think of this as a goldenrod unless he knows that a few woodland species have flowers arranged in this manner.

This is an excerpt from a longer piece about Wolden edited by Amie Adams and published in The Blazing Star Journal. To read the entire article, click here:

Amie Adams

Photo of Amie Adams by Kaleb Mortenson

Amie Adams is an essayist writing at the intersection of narrative nonfiction and place studies. She earned an MFA at Washington State University and is certified as an Iowa Master Naturalist. In addition to compiling some of the writings of Bernt Olaf Wolden into The Observer, her essays have been published in Midwest Review, Rootstalk, and Pensive, among others. 

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