Solidago subsection Glomeruliflorae Torr. & Gray, includes all of the goldenrods with flowers in axillary clusters. Floras include between five and nine species within the subsection, with the major problem being the members of the caesia/curtisii/flaccidifolia complex. The goal of this study was to determine the number of taxa and their ranks. Subsection Glomeruliflorae is centered in the Appalachian Mountains of Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia with the ranges of some of the taxa extending north into Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes, south to Florida and west to Oklahoma. Field work was undertaken in 1999-2001 to collect specimens to determine the cytotype distributions within the taxa and for multivariate statistical analyses including clustering, canonical variate and discriminate analyses. The results of these analyses support the recognition of the following species: S. caesia, S. flexicaulis, S. glomerata, S. macrophylla, S. lancifolia, S. albopilosa, S. ouachitensis and S. curtisii with S. flaccidifolia being included within S. curtisii. Solidago caesia and S. macrophylla were found to be diploid throughout their ranges. Solidago flexicaulis was found to be diploid in the northeastern portion of its range and tetraploid throughout the remainder of its range with the exception of a pocket of diploid plants in Kentucky. Solidago glomerata is a high polyploid species with an unstable chromosome number between 2n=96 and 2n=ca.126. Solidago curtisii includes diploid, tetrapoid and hexaploid plants. Published chromosome counts indicate that S. ouachitensis is diploid and S. albopilosa is tetraploid. Both of these species are endangered. There are no reported chromosome counts for S. lancifolia.

Key words: Asteraceae, biosystematics, cytogeography, Solidago, taxonomy