Sweet goldenrod

Solidago odora, the sweet goldenrod, anise-scented goldenrod, or Blue Mountain tea, is an aromatic perennial herb in the Asteraceae family native to dry, open woodlands, sandy clearings, and pine barrens of the eastern United States, from New Hampshire south to Florida and west to Texas. It typically grows 60 to 150 cm tall, with slender, erect, mostly unbranched stems arising from short, woody rhizomes. The leaves are alternate, sessile, narrowly lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 5 to 12 cm long and 5 to 15 mm wide, entire-margined, smooth-edged, glabrous, and conspicuously dotted with translucent oil glands that release a sweet anise-like fragrance when crushed — the diagnostic character of this species. The inflorescence is a one-sided, pyramidal, terminal panicle of small bright yellow heads, each 3 to 5 mm long with 3 to 4 ray florets and 3 to 6 disc florets; flowering occurs from midsummer to autumn. Fruits are short-pubescent achenes bearing a pappus of white capillary bristles. The leaves have a long history of use as a pleasant herbal tea. (POWO; Flora of North America)