Plants are perennial from single or multiple stems and normally are about 3 ft. tall. Plants are hairy above the middle. Leaf texture and hairiness and flower head size are the highly variable characters. Plants with longer flower heads and leaves nearly smooth on the upper surface are most common in our area. Leaves are usually about 2 to 4 inches long, toothed, and distributed quite uniformly up the stem.
Fruits are tiny achenes equipped with white bristles to aid transport by wind.
Look for Canada goldenrod in September in rich soils of native grassland. More plants seem to occur where grazing is light or moderate, perhaps because of the slightly better soil moisture conditions than are found under heavy grazing. The plant produces an oil that was once commercially extracted, but I was unable to determine what use was made of the oil. The family contains over 15,000 species, more than any other family in North Dakota as well as nearly every country in the North Temperate Zone.