Maryland golden-aster

Chrysopsis mariana, the Maryland golden-aster, is an erect perennial herb of the Asteraceae native to dry, sandy or rocky open woodlands and pinelands of the eastern United States, from New York and Ohio south to Florida and Texas. Plants arise from a short woody crown and reach 25–80 cm, with one to several stems that are conspicuously clothed in long, soft, silky-villous hairs when young, becoming glabrate with age. Basal leaves are oblanceolate, 3–10 cm long, narrowed to a winged petiole; cauline leaves are alternate, sessile, oblong to elliptic, 1.5–5 cm long, entire to remotely toothed, silky-pubescent. The inflorescence is an open, flat-topped corymb of 5–25 heads on glandular peduncles; involucres are bell-shaped, 6–10 mm tall, with imbricate, linear-lanceolate, glandular phyllaries. Each head bears 13–21 bright yellow ray florets surrounding many yellow disc florets. Achenes are obovoid, pubescent, with a double pappus—an outer ring of short scales and an inner row of long barbellate bristles. Flowering occurs August–October.