Yellow or golden meadow beauty

Caudices developed; roots short, fibrous, lignescent, non-tuberiferous. Stems branched proximally, 10–40 cm, faces subequal, flat to convex, 4-angled distally from midstem, internodes and nodes hirsute, hairs eglandular. Leaves sub­sessile; blade spatulate to oblanceolate or elliptic, 2–3 cm × 2–8 mm, 2 lateral veins marginal on narrower leaves, margins subentire to shallowly serrate, surfaces loosely strigose, hairs yellowish. Inflorescences diffuse, not obscured by bracts. Flowers: hypanthium globose, much longer than the constricted neck, 6–7 mm, hirsute to villous, eglandular; calyx lobes triangular, apices aristate; petals ascending, golden-yellow, 1–1.5 cm; anthers straight, 2 mm. Seeds 0.7 mm, surfaces with few straight ridges of papillae along crest, sides with lower, more scattered papillae or ± smooth. 2n = 44.

Flowering Apr–Jul. Wet pine flatwoods and savannas, slash pine scrub, cypress pond margins, seepage slopes, bogs, clearings, openings, sandy peat; 0–50 m; Ala., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.C., S.C., Tex.