This warm season perennial grows in mesic to moist tallgrass prairies. It tends to grow taller than other goldenrods and has smooth, folded leaves.In wet areas it is found with Calamagrostis canadensis, Chelone glabra, and Scirpus atrovirens. Panicum virgatum, Liatris spicata, and Sporobolus heterolepis are associated with Ridell’s Goldenrod in dry prairies. This species hybridizes with O. rigidum and O. album with remarkable ease.