| Author | Nuttall | |
| Distribution | South-central Piedmont only. Restricted to just 3 counties: Montgomery, Rowan, and Stanly; but limited to just Stanly and Montgomery now (apparently extirpated in Rowan). Several collections from the southwestern Mountain counties have not been examined by the website editors, and are not included here -- none are in the NCU herbarium.
Primarily midwestern, IL and KS, south to LA and TX; disjunct to KY, NC, SC, GA, AL. | |
| Abundance | Very rare in the central Piedmont, known from only 5-6 sites, according to the NCNHP database. Several are still extant in Stanly County, with 100 or more plants noted at a few of them. Nonetheless, the species is deservedly listed as State Endangered. | |
| Habitat | Dry open oak-hickory woodlands on mafic soils (i.e., Enon), rocky river scour zone (Yadkin River, Montgomery County). Can be seen on roadbanks and edges of such upland forests, but a few populations are in dappled shade of forest (such as Xeric Hardpan Forest) interiors. | |
| Phenology | Flowering and fruiting August-October. | |
| Identification | Western Rough Goldenrod can be told by a combination of characters: stems densely short-hairy, leaves elliptic (and only barely toothed), rough upper surface of the leaves, short-hairy leaf underside, and the inflorescence elongate and with short branches. Note also its preference for mafic soils. It is odd that nearly all current populations are located in a single county. There are similar upland hardwood forests over mafic rocks in many parts of the Piedmont and lower mountains. It is hoped that botanists can expand the range to other counties in upcoming years. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | None
| |
| Other Common Name(s) | None | |
| State Rank | S1 | |
| Global Rank | G5? | |
| State Status | E | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | | |
| USACE-emp | | |
