and 0.75 mm wide, and the disc florets have corollas 3–3.5 mm long. The seeds are produced in fruits called cypselae which are 2 mm long and have moderately short-strigose hairs. The fruits are topped with silky hair-like pappi 2–3 mm long. Habitat Short's goldenrod grows best in shallow, clay soils with full sun or partial shade. Ideal areas include pastures, rock ledges, limestone and cedar glades, and openings in woods and forests such as those created by power line rights-of-way. Such openings are most likely to occur naturally as the result of vegetative disturbances such as fires or heavy animal grazing. Ideal growing conditions exist in populations of more than 300 healthy plants spread over 10 or more acres with buffering vegetation for at least . Significant areas of potential habitat for the plant were destroyed in the 1970s by construction of a new campground at Blue Licks Battlefield State Park. On December 16, 1981, a 6 ha (15 acre) tract of land was donated to the Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission to create Blue Licks State Nature Preserve, an area dedicated to preserving Short's goldenrod. Additional tracts were dedicated on June 16, 1998 and March 7, 2000, respectively, bringing the total area of the preserve to 21 ha (53 acres). Today, the preserve hosts the Short's Goldenrod Festival; all proceeds from the festival fund efforts to preserve the plant. History Short's goldenrod was first described by John Torrey and Samuel Frederick Gray in 1842. It was named for Dr. Charles Wilkins Short of Louisville, Kentucky, who discovered it growing on a limestone outcrop known as Rock Island in the Falls of the Ohio in 1840. It was last collected from that location in 1860, but might have continued to grow there had it not been for the alteration of the island effected by the construction of McAlpine Locks and Dam on the falls in the early 1900s. The species was considered extinct until ecologist E. Lucy Braun discovered a population near Blue Lick Springs in Kentucky in 1939. Later that year, numerous populations of Short's goldenrod were reported growing on rocky slopes and pastures in the area, but only three of those still exist. In 1995, ecologists attempted to re-establish the species in Falls of the Ohio State Park by planting seven clumps of the goldenrod. Those clumps were wiped out by flooding within a year. Six years