Plants 30-100 cm; caudices stout, branched, rhizomes thick. Stems usually 1, ascending to erect, uniformly short villoso-strigose, occasionally glabrate proximally. Leaves: basal and proximal cauline short-petiolate, blades broadly ovate or elliptic-ovate, margins serrate, ± 3-nerved and pinnately nerved, abaxial faces (at least) evenly short villoso-strigose; mid and distal cauline like proximal, 20-70 × 10-40 mm (1.3-2 times as long as wide), usually only those near arrays reduced and 1-nerved. Heads 30-200+, apparently sometimes drooping, in open leafy, secund pyramidal, paniculiform arrays, branches recurved, leafy-bracteate, secund, proximalmost branch sometimes separated by several nodes from next. Peduncles 1-6 mm; bracteoles ovate, minute, grading into phyllaries. Involucres campanulate, 3-4.5 mm. Phyllaries in 3 series, strongly unequal, obtuse or rounded; mid broadly oblong, inner narrowly so. Ray florets 3-7; laminae 1.5-2 × 0.5-1 mm. Disc florets 4-7; corollas (abruptly ampliate) 3-3.5 mm, lobes ca. 1 mm. Cypselae 1.5-2 mm (4-8 translucent ribs), moderately short-strigose; pappi 2-2.5 mm. 2n = 18. Flowering late Jul-Oct. Crevices of limestone ledges and bluffs, rocky woods, especially in calcareous soil; 100-300+ m; Ark., Ill., Mo. A. Cronquist (1980) listed Solidago drummondii as reputedly in Louisiana; K. N. Gandhi and R. D. Thomas (1989) did not see any specimen from that state.
Stems 3-10 dm from a stout, branched caudex, uniformly pubescent with short, spreading hairs, occasionally glabrate near the base; lvs chiefly cauline, broadly ovate or elliptic-ovate, all except sometimes the uppermost evidently short-petiolate, ±triple-nerved, but also pinnately veined, finely and usually densely spreading-hairy at least on the lower side, generally only those near the infl reduced, the others 1.3-2 times as long as wide, the larger ones 3.5-9 נ2.5-7 cm; infl paniculiform, with recurved-secund branches, or the heads apparently sometimes drooping; invol 3-4.5 mm, its bracts obtuse or rounded; rays 3-7, well developed; disk-fls 4-7; achenes short-hairy; 2n=18. Cliff-crevices and rocky woods, especially in calcareous soil; Mo., Ill., and Ark.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
