Plants 50-120 cm; rhizomes short, caudexlike. Stems 1-5, sparsely to moderately strigoso-puberulent. Leaves: basal petioles 3-5 cm, blades oblanceolate or spatulate to ovate or rotund, 2-4 cm (excluding petioles); cauline (numerous) subsessile or sessile, blades elliptic or lance-elliptic to ovate, mid mostly 25-50(-65) × 10-25 mm, distal much reduced; branch leaf petioles 1 mm, blades ovate, 5-15 (excluding petioles) × 2-10 mm. Heads 75-200 in open paniculiform arrays, branches divaricate, ascending to recurved, weakly to strongly secund, to 50 cm, secondary branches less than 3 cm. Peduncles linear, 1-3 mm, bracteate. Involucres narrowly campanulate, 3-5 mm. Phyllaries in 3-4 series, lanceolate, strongly unequal, margins ciliate, apices acute, glabrous. Ray florets 0(-2). Disc florets 4-8; corollas 3 mm, lobes 1 mm. Cypselae 2.5-3 mm, moderately short-strigose; pappi 2 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering (Sep-)Oct(-Nov). Open woods, coastal plain, and piedmont; 10-100+ m; Ala., Fla., Ga., N.C., S.C.

Solidago brachyphylla possibly occurs also in Mississippi.