Narrow-leaf white-topped aster

Conyza linifolia Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 861. 1753, not Aster linifolius Linnaeus; A. solidagineus Michaux; Sericocarpus solidagineus (Michaux) Nees

Plants 22–75 cm. Stems erect (stout, branched), glabrate. Leaves: basal and proximalmost cauline withering by flowering; cauline sessile; blades linear, 10–80 × 1–10 mm, margins entire, apices acuminate, faces glabrate. Heads 2–4 per branch, in broadly corymbiform arrays. Peduncle bracts broadly lanceolate to narrowly ovate, glabrate. Involucres 4–6 mm. Phyllaries in 3–4 series, outer 2–4 mm, mid 3–4 mm, glabrate. Ray florets 2–6; tubes 2–4 mm, laminae 4–11 mm. Disc florets 5–15; corollas 2–4 mm, lobes 1–2 mm. Ovaries obconic, 0.8–1.3 mm, densely strigose; pappi: inner series 3–6 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering mid summer–early fall. Dry to moist sandy, clay, and gravelly soils of open deciduous and pine woods , oak and pine barrens, roadsides, fields; 0–900 m; Ala., Conn., Del., D.C., Ga., Ind., Ky., La., Md., Mass., Miss., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Va., W.Va.