Plants 50-150 cm; caudices short, rhizomes creeping, elongate, thin to thick. Stems 1-3+, erect (angu-lar in cross section, sometimes winged on angles), glabrous or sparsely hairy in arrays. Leaves: basal and proximal cauline abruptly narrowed to long, winged petioles, blades broadly ovate, 100-300 × 40-100 mm, relatively thick, margins serrate, apices acute, abaxially glabrous, adaxially scabrous; distal cauline sessile, blades lanceolate, 50-80 × 15-20 mm, gradually reduced distally, subentire. Heads 25-200, secund, in open, lax, secund, pyramidal, paniculiform arrays, branches ascending to recurved, often elongate with recurved ends. Peduncles 1-4 mm, sparsely hispido-strigose, bracteoles 2-5, lanceolate, grading into phyllaries distally. Involucres 3-4.5 mm. Phyllaries (10-12) in 3-4 series, ovate to linear-ovate, unequal, obtuse. Ray florets 5-12; laminae 1.5-1.7 × 0.5 mm. Disc florets 5-15; corollas 2.8-3 mm, lobes 0.6-1.5 mm. Cypselae (sometimes mottled) 1.5-2 mm, strigillose; pappi 2-3 mm. Solidago patula is readily recognized by the angled stem and the sharkskin-like texture of the adaxial surface of the leaves.