Cut-leaf or sharp-leaved or Atlantic goldenrod

Aster argutus (Aiton) Kuntze

Plants 50–120 cm; caudices branching. Stems 1 usually, erect, round, proximally glabrous, strigose in arrays. Leaves: basal and proximal cauline tapering abruptly to winged, thin petioles, blades broadly ovate, 100–300 × 30–100 mm, margins sharply serrate, apices acute to acuminate, adaxial faces glabrous or slightly scabrous, or sometimes strigose or strigillose; mid to distal cauline sessile, lanceolate, 50–72 × 10–14 mm, reduced distally, becoming entire. Heads 25–250, secund, in open, leafy, paniculiform arrays with recurved branches (sometimes elongate), branches and peduncles hairy. Peduncles 1.5–3 mm, glabrous or moderately short hispido-strigose, bracteoles 1–5, lanceolate-oblong, often grading into phyllaries. Involucres 2.5–4.5(–5) mm. Phyllaries in 3–4 series, unequal; outer ovate, acute, inner linear-oblong, ciliate, obtuse. Ray florets 2–8; laminae 4–4.5 × 0.4–0.6 mm. Disc florets 8–20; corollas 3.5–4 mm, lobes 0.6–1.5 mm. Cypselae 1.5–2 mm, distinctly ridged, glabrous or strigose distally; pappi 3–3.5 mm.

Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora): North America.

Solidago arguta is reputedly in Ohio but its presence there is unconfirmed. The species includes a number of regional and ecotypal races investigated by G. H. Morton (1973, 1975). A. Cronquist (1980) is followed here.

SELECTED REFERENCE

Morton, G. H. 1973. The Taxonomy of the Solidago arguta–boottii Complex. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Tennessee.