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Pictured: Heterotheca stenophylla — the species. This variety isn’t separately illustrated.
Asteraceae family

Stiffleaf False Goldenaster (var. angustifolia) Heterotheca stenophylla var. angustifolia variety

Native Specialist-bee host

Stiffleaf False Goldenaster (var. angustifolia) is a perennial shrub native to the lower 48 states. A host for pollen-specialist native bees.

More about this plant

Heterotheca stenophylla, called the stiffleaf goldenaster, is a North American species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It grows on the Great Plains of the central United States from South Dakota south to Texas and New Mexico.VarietiesHeterotheca stenophylla var. angustifolia (Rydb.) Semple Heterotheca stenophylla var. stenophylla Wikipedia →

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
Hardiness
≥ zone 5 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Lifespan
Perennial
In the garden
Shrub layer — Sits in the shrub of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts ~7 caterpillar species

Heterotheca supports ~7 caterpillar species.

Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a modest genus.

Recorded feeding on Heterotheca in North America, including:

Charidryas gabbii · brush-footed butterfly Chlosyne lacinia · Bordered Patch Dichomeris baxa · twirler moth Epiblema scudderiana · Goldenrod Gall Moth Eucosma ridingsana · leafroller moth Heliocheilus paradoxus · Paradoxical Grass Moth
+ 5 more species →
Heliothis virescens · Tobacco Budworm Schinia lynx · Lynx Flower Moth Schinia nubila · Camphorweed Flower Moth Schinia saturata · Brown Flower Moth Tischeria heteroterae
Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).
✦ Bees specialist-bee host

Specialist native bees depend on it.

Some native bees are pollen specialists (oligolectic) — they raise young only on pollen from particular plant genera. Heterotheca is a recorded specialist-bee host, so losing it can mean losing the bee that relies on it.

Xerces pollinator conservation →
Specialist hosts from Smith et al. 2024.
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
Sources for this entry (11) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — native status
[06] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
[07] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts · Smith et al. 2024 (CC BY)
[08] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[09] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[10] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
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PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

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