Multiple 6–20 inch tall stems covered with short hairs have stalkless (sessile) leaves and flower heads with yellow rays and disk florets. Note the mid-leaves are broad and lined with long hairs, and the bracts (phyllaries) beneath the heads are leaf-like with some overtopping the heads.

FLOWER: June–September. Arrays of 7–15 flower heads on branch ends; heads have 11–21 bright-yellow rays, each 3/8–1/2 inch long (9–13 mm), surrounding a disk of tiny, yellow, tubular florets; 1–4 leaf-like, lance-shaped bracts are below each flower head, some overtopping the head.

LEAVES: Alternate, sessile (stalkless). Blades oblong to elliptic, 3/4–2 inches long (2–5 cm); surfaces sparsely to densely covered with short, stiff hairs and glands (use lens); tips pointed, margins entire and straight to wavy. The amount of long (ciliate) hairs on the leaf edges and short, stiff hairs on the surfaces vary greatly from sparse to dense according to the variety.

HABITAT: Dry sandy rocky, loamy soils of grasslands, meadows, steep slopes, woodlands, disturbed areas; desert grasslands and scrub, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa-Douglas fir woodlands.

ELEVATION: 4,500–10,400 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, ID, NM, NV, TX, UT, WY.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Four varieties with overlapping ranges in NM have differing amounts of hair on the leaf surface and margins, the amount of glands on the leaves, and the shape of phyllaries. A recent treatment segregated the low-elevation, xeric Arizona false goldenaster, H. fulcrata var. arizonica, in sw. NM, to species rank, H. arizonica. Its small, closely-spaced leaves are 1/2 inch long, upward-pointing, densely glandular, with short, even margin hairs, and shorter bracts. The leaf-like of bracts H. fulcrata distinguish it from the widespread hairy goldenaster, H. villosa. The Hererotheca genus is in the process of a complete reshuffle, renaming, and reorganization.

NM COUNTIES: Various varieties widespread across NM from low- to high-elevation, dry habitats: Catron, Chaves, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Luna, McKinley, Roosevelt, San Juan, San Miguel, Otero, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Valencia.