The Cowpen Daisy is a very very common plant. It thrives on "disturbed ground," which is a term I've been seeing a lot more lately... especially in regards to road-side wild flowers. I'm guessing that it means it's a fast returner, taking hold of loose or overturned ground quickly before other plants get a good chance. I have yet to find one solitary Cowpen Daisy plant, it's always three or more. And in the some cases nearly an acre of yellow.
As a daisy it's has ray flowers, usually 10 or 12 rays and each ray having 3 teeth. The flowers are about 2 inches in diameter. They have yellow petals, and yellow middles when they first open and yellow-brown centers after the pollen is gone. The leaves are triangular and coarsely toothed. They grow oppositely on the stem and around it so from the top it looks four pointed. The color is a light silvery green and the whole plant is covered in a light fuzz.
These are late bloomers, their season is from Fall to early Winter.
I was going to ask if it's an aster, given the ray petals and the late blooming. But after a little web-searching, I finally found the answer, and it is. It took a while, but I learned to distinguish some of the fleabane from the similar asters simply by the time of year. There are some differences that a careful observer would notice, but it's easier for me to notice whether the calendar says June or October. LOL. (By the way, I found it humorous, given the name of this aster, that the verification word on my hedge-apple comment a minute ago was "bovin.")
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