Chrysoma pauciflosculosa (Michaux) Greene. Woody Goldenrod. Phen: Late Jul-Oct. Hab: Coastal dunes, xeric sands of very barren, open, white-sand sandhills, fluvial dunes, and less commonly in driest habitats in the fall-line Sandhills, on the Gul Coast sometimes an increaser in disturbed sandy sites. Dist: S. NC south to n. FL and west to s. MS. The single c. FL record (Lake County; R. Mulholland, pers. comm., 2023) seems questionable (but not impossible) as a natural occurrence.

ID notes: Chrysoma has a growth habit unlike any other shrub east of Texas, southwestern United States, and Mexico. From a trunk-like base, numerous branches ascend, forming a flat-topped shrub 3-5 dm tall. Each branch has a cluster of evergreen leaves restricted to its terminal few cm, the internodes very short (a few mm at most). In summer, some of the woody branches produce terminal, deciduous, flowering branches, which elongate rapidly, the leaves widely spaced, reaching a height of a meter or more. Following flowering and fruiting, the deciduous branches die back to the summit of the woody branches. The leaves are gray-green, rather thick-textured, and finely reticulate, the reticulations giving an appearance rather like anole skin. The midrib is prominent below, almost invisible on the upper surface. Godfrey (1988) has an excellent drawing and description of this distinctive shrub.

Origin/Endemic status: Endemic

Synonymy: = Fl7, FNA20, K1, K3, K4, S, SE1, WH3; = Chrysoma solidaginoides Nutt.; = Solidago pauciflosculosa Michx. – RAB

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Wetland Indicator Status:

• Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain: FAC

Heliophily ?: 9