Lemon yellow flowers cover this 1–3-foot tall and wide branching plant with smooth stems. The flowers open in the morning and close by late afternoon giving the plant its common came. Note the phyllaries beneath the rays are hairless without bristle tips.

FLOWER: May–September. Flowers heads, 3/4–1 1/2-inches wide (19–38 mm), have 12–34 narrow, petal-like, sharp–pointed, lance-shaped ray flowers surrounding a yellow disk. The pointed phyllaries, or bracts, which clasp the bottom of the flower are in 3–4 layers, straw-colored at base and dark at the tip, surface smooth with tiny hairs along the edges, and the tip with a bristle. Both the ray and disk florets are fertile.

LEAVES: Alternate. Lower blades up to 2-inches long (50 mm) with teeth or lobes; midstem leaves with small teeth; smaller upper leaves hug stem, lance-shaped or linear with entire margins; surfaces smooth.

HABITAT: Granite soils, sandy plains, roadsides; shortgrass prairies, sage scrub.

ELEVATION: 2,500–4,300 feet.

RANGE: AZ, NM, OK, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Cutleaf Goldenweed, X. spinulosum, in much the same range, has narrow leaves with tiny lobes with bristle tips along the midrib, and phyllaries with bristle tips. The annual Slender Goldenweed, X. gracile, in the western 2/3 of NM, has 12–18 (26) yellow ray flowers and narrow, erect linear leaves held near the stem, with 3–6 tiny, bristle-tips (use lens) per side. Hairy Golden-aster, Heterotheca villosa, nearly statewide, has linear, 3/8–1-inch long (10–25 mm), gray-green leaves densely covered with rough hairs.

NM COUNTIES: Eastern half of NM in low-elevation, dry habitats: Colfax, Curry, De Baca, Eddy, Grant, Harding, Lea, Mora, San Miguel, Sandoval, Roosevelt, Quay, Taos, Union.