Plants 50-120 cm; rhizomes short, caudexlike or somewhat elongate. Stems usually 1, ascending to erect or arching, densely spreading-puberulent to occasionally subglabrous. Leaves: basal (rosettes) present at flowering, conspicuously petiolate, petioles slightly winged distally, to 100 mm, blades cordate, 40-120 × 40-110 mm, margins coarsely sharp-serrate, apices acute to acuminate, abaxial faces moderately to densely spreading-puberulent, adaxial sparsely so or glabrate; mid and distal cauline progressively reduced, less petiolate, blades ovate to lanceolate, less cordate distally, 40-60 × 20-30 mm, margins finely serrate. Heads 50-250, densely crowded, often subglomerate, in secund paniculiform arrays, proximal branches few, widely spreading, secund, elongate, distal short, recurved. Peduncles 0-1 mm, sparsely hispido-strigose, bracteoles 1-4, lanceolate-ovate, grading into phyllaries. Involucres narrowly campanulate, 3-4.5 mm. Phyllaries in 2-3 series, ovate, strongly unequal, outer somewhat keeled, firm, margins ciliate. Ray florets 3-6; laminae ca. 1 × 0.5-0.7 mm. Disc florets 3-6; corollas 2-2.5 mm, lobes 0.75-1.2 mm. Cypselae 1-2 mm, sparsely short-strigose; pappi ca. 0.5 mm (forming many-bristled crown on longer cypselae). 2n = 18. Flowering (Jul-)Aug-Sep(-Oct). Open woods and rocky places, especially in calcareous soil, mountains and adjacent eroded plateaus; 100-1000+ m; Ala., Ga., Ill., Ind., Ky., Miss., N.C., Ohio, Tenn., Va., W.Va. The vernacular name false goldenrod comes from the erroneous assignment of the species to the genus Brachychaeta rather than to Solidago, where it belongs.