Anise-scented or fragrant or sweet goldenrod

Aster odorus (Aiton) Kuntze; Solidago odora var. inodora A. Gray

Plants 60–120 cm; caudices short, stout. Stems 1–5+, erect to arching, puberulent in arrays and in lines proximal to leaf bases or uniformly. Leaves usually anise-scented when crushed ; basal and proximal usually withering by flowering, tapering to broadly winged petioles, blades oblanceolate, margins entire, short-strigillose, faces glabrous or short scabroso-strigillose along main nerves; mid and distal cauline sessile, blades lanceolate to linear-lanceolate or narrowly ovate, 30–110 × 8–20 mm, much reduced distally, bases rounded, margins entire, midnerves prominent, sometimes scabroso-strigillose basally to much of length, apices acute, faces glabrous, finely translucent gland-dotted. Heads (20–)75–350, in paniculiform arrays, openly secund, pyramidal, proximal to mid branches ascending to spreading, recurved, secund, 3–18 cm. Peduncles thin, 2–8 mm, glabrate to finely puberulent, glabrous strips proximal to few linear-lanceolate bracteoles. Involucres narrowly campanulate, 3.5–5 mm. Phyllaries in 3–4 series, strongly unequal, yellowish, acute, glabrous; outer narrowly ovate to lanceolate, inner lanceolate to linear-lanceolate. Ray florets 3–4(–6); laminae 1.4–2.5 × 0.4–0.9 mm. Disc florets 3–5; corollas 2.7–3.5 mm, lobes 0.5–1.3 mm. Cypselae (obconic) 1.4–2.3 mm, strigose to glabrate; pappi 2.4–3 mm.

Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora); e United States, Mexico.