| Author | Small | |
| Distribution | Southern Outer Coastal Plain; disjunct to the Sandhills in a couple of places on Fort Bragg in Cumberland County. Ranges north only to Craven and Cumberland counties.
Coastal Plain, a narrow endemic to southeastern NC. Reported from northeastern SC, but specimens have not been seen for verification.
| |
| Abundance | Uncommon to locally abundant. Over its range, not at a large number of sites, but can be very numerous in well-managed pine savannas and sandhill seepages. It is considered as a Watch List species by NCNHP (NCNHP gives it a State Rank of S3) and thus it is not imperiled at the present time. | |
| Habitat | Moist Longleaf Pine-Wiregrass savannas and flatwoods, pocosin ecotones, blackwater streamhead ecotones (Fort Bragg). |
| Phenology | Flowering and fruiting July-September. | |
| Identification | This is a split of the former Solidago stricta, as are S. gracillima and S. virgata. S. pulchra differs from them in its shorter stems (1-2 feet tall vs. 2-6 feet) and more numerous ray florets (8-13 vs. 1-8). All of these species are "wand-like", having very slender, spike-like inflorescences. It is a very handsome plant when in full bloom. Weakley (2018) adds "There is no question of the distinctness of this species from S. virgata and S. gracillima. Once learned, the basal leaves are recognizable at a glance, the petiole very long (often twice as long as the leaf blade), the venation finely netted, the margins smooth and entire, the tip usually acute and prominently mucronate. Even following fire, sterile rosettes typically outnumber flowering plants 100 to 1." | |
| Taxonomic Comments | In RAB (1968) and some other old texts, lumped within S. stricta, but clearly distinct.
| |
| Other Common Name(s) | Beautiful Goldenrod | |
| State Rank | S3 | |
| Global Rank | G3 | |
| State Status | W1 | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | | |
| USACE-emp | | |
