Basal leaves often linear-oblanceolate, usually not crenate. Involucres usually 4.6-5.8 mm. Disc corolla lobes (0.6-) 0.8-1.5 mm. Cypselae moderately strigose; pappi usually exceeding ray corolla tubes and bases of disc corolla lobes. 2n = 36.
Flowering Aug-Oct. Open, sandy and gravelly soils, disturbed sites, roadsides, prairies and grasslands, drier open mixed deciduous and conifers woods; 200-1600 m; Alta., B.C., Man., Ont., Sask.; Ark., Colo., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Mich., Minn., Mo., Mont., Nebr., N.Mex., N.Dak., Okla., S.Dak., Tex., Wyo.
Subspecies decemflora is the tetraploid prairie and lower elevation cordilleran race of the species. Combinations based on Solidago longipetiolata have been applied to this race; the name does not have nomenclatural priority.
From Flora of Indiana (1940) by Charles C. Deam
Frequent on the dunes bordering Lake Michigan and local elsewhere in the lake area in dry sandy or gravelly soil.