1. Bradburia pilosa (Nutt.) Semple (soft goldenaster)

Chrysopsis pilosa Nutt.

C. nuttallii Britton

Heterotheca pilosa (Nutt.) Shinners

Pl. 232 h–j; Map 966

Plants annual, with often short, stout taproots. Stems usually solitary, 25–60(–80) cm long, erect or ascending, with several ascending branches above the midpoint, with fine, longitudinal lines or grooves, moderately to densely pubescent with longer and shorter, fine, bent or curled hairs, many of the shorter hairs gland-tipped. Basal leaves usually withered by flowering time, oblanceolate, the margins usually with 2 to several pairs of teeth. Stem leaves sometimes somewhat reduced toward the tip of the stem, 1–6 cm long, oblanceolate to narrowly oblong-oblanceolate or linear, rounded to bluntly or sharply pointed at the tip, more or less tapered to a slightly expanded but not strongly clasping base, the margins entire or few-toothed toward the tip (the lowermost stem leaves sometimes with more teeth), the surfaces and especially the margins moderately to densely pubescent with longer and shorter, fine, bent or curled hairs, many of the shorter hairs gland-tipped. Inflorescences appearing as flat-topped to shallowly convex panicles, the heads solitary or in small, loose clusters toward the branch tips, the branch tips and stalks short to relatively long, with usually several leaflike, linear bracts 0.5–1.5 cm long. Heads radiate, not or only slightly sticky, not resinous. Involucre 6–10 mm long, cup-shaped to slightly bell-shaped. Involucral bracts in 3 or 4 unequal, overlapping series, narrowly lanceolate to linear, the slender tip ascending to loosely ascending and often brownish- or purplish-tinged, at least the longer bracts with the green central stripe absent or threadlike toward the base, broadened and narrowly elliptic above the midpoint, the whitish or straw-colored marginal areas becoming correspondingly narrower above the midpoint, the outer surface moderately hairy, at least some of the shorter hairs gland-tipped. Receptacle flat or slightly convex, sometimes with low, toothlike ridges around the attachment points of the florets, especially toward the outer florets. Ray florets 13–25, pistillate, the corolla 6–12 mm long, yellow, not persistent at fruiting. Disc florets 25–60, perfect, the corolla 4.5–6.0 mm long, yellow, not persistent at fruiting. Pappus of the ray and disc florets similar, a low crown of several shorter, white to off-white scales 0.5–1.0 mm long and numerous longer, finely barbed bristles 4–6 mm long, these usually white when young but often turning straw-colored to light orangish brown as the fruits mature. Fruits 1.7–2.5 mm long, more or less wedge-shaped to slightly obovoid, often slightly flattened, finely 10-nerved, the nerves sometimes difficult to observe, the surface moderately pubescent with fine, appressed, silvery hairs, light tan to brown. 2n=8. June–October.

Scattered in the southern third of the state (Tennessee to Mississippi west to Kansas and Texas; introduced sporadically farther north and east). Upland prairies, sand prairies, glades, savannas, banks of streams and rivers, and rarely margins of fens; also fallow fields, old fields, railroads, and roadsides.