Shiny goldenrod

Oligoneuron nitidum (Torrey & A. Gray) Small

Plants 30–100 cm; caudices branching; vascular bundles and petiole bases persistent (attached to old stems for more than a season). Stems 1–10+, ascending-erect, glabrous proximally, usually moderately scabrous-puberulent distally. Leaves: basal often present at flowering as new rosettes; basal and proximal cauline often with distal portions withering by flowering, long-petiolate, blades shiny, ± 3-nerved, linear to oblanceolate, (30–)100–250 × (2–)5–15 mm, margins entire or sparsely serrulate, faces glabrous; mid and distal cauline sessile, blades linear-lanceolate to linear, 15–80 × 1–7 mm, much reduced distally, faces glabrous or scabrous. Heads 20–150+ in compactly corymbiform arrays, sometimes somewhat rounded. Peduncles usually moderately to densely strigillose, sometimes sparsely so or glabrous; bracts minute. Involucres campanulate, 4.5–6 mm. Phyllaries in 3–4 series, broadly oblong, unequal, firm, striately nerved, rounded, glabrous. Ray florets 1–4; laminae 3–5 × 1–1.5 mm. Disc florets 7–13; corollas 4–5 mm, lobes 0.5–1 mm. Cypselae (dark brown, obconic, full) 2–3 mm (7–10 nerved), glabrous; pappi 4–5 mm (clavate). 2n = 18.

Flowering (Jul–)Aug–Oct. Prairies and open woods; 0–300 m; Ark., La., Miss., Okla., Tex.