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Grass-leaved Goldenrod (Euthamia graminifolia)

• Family: Aster (Asteraceae)
• Flowering: July-October.
• Field Marks: This is one of the narrow-leaved goldenrods with more or less flat-topped flower clusters. It differs from other similar species by having three main veins in the leaves.
• Habitat: Fallow fields, wet prairies.
• Habit: Perennial herb with long, slender rhizomes.
• Stems: Erect, branched, hairy, up to 5 feet tall.
• Leaves: Alternate, simple, linear to elliptic, pointed at the tip, tapering to the base, without teeth, smooth or rough on the upper surface, hairy on the lower surface, up to 4 inches long, up to 1/4 inch wide, with 3 main veins.
• Flowers: Several crowded into a head with many heads forming a branched, more or less flat-topped inflorescence, each head up to 1/4 inch across, subtended by several narrow, green, somewhat sticky bracts, the outer flowers 15-25, yellow, ray- like, the inner flowers yellow and tubular.
• Sepals: 0.
• Petals: The outer yellow, ray-like, about 1/8 inch long, the inner yellow, tubular, 5-parted.
• Stamens: 5.
• Pistils: Ovary inferior, hairy.
• Fruits: Achenes 1/30 inch long, hairy, with a tuft of very short bristles.