Plants 20-100 cm; caudices short-branched. Stems 1-6(-10) , erect, short-canescent (hairs ascending to appressed). Leaves: basal and proximal cauline tapering to long, winged petioles, blades spatulate-ovate to oblanceolate, 20-95 × 7-15 mm, margins crenate to entire, apices acute, faces densely puberulent; mid and distal cauline (sometimes subtending axillary tufts of lateral branch leaves) sessile, blades linear-oblance-olate, 16-45 × 3-7 mm, reduced distally, margins entire. Heads 10-300, secund, in wandlike pyramidal, paniculiform arrays, secund to apically recurved, 8-25 × 2.5-10 cm, sometimes proximal branches elongate, repeating pattern. Peduncles 2-3.5 mm, bracteoles 0-4, linear. Involucres narrowly campanulate, 2.6-5.8 mm. Phyllaries in 3 series, ovate to linear-lanceolate, unequal, outer acute, inner obtuse. Ray florets 5-11; laminae 2.8-5.5 × 0.3-0.7 mm. Disc florets 3-10; 2.5-4.6 mm, lobes 0.4-0.6 mm. Cypselae (obconic) 0.5-2 mm, strigose; pappi 2-4 mm. The arrays can be elongate with ends bent nearly 90-180°.

Plants 1-10 dm from a branched caudex; herbage densely and finely puberulent with minute, loosely spreading hairs; lvs basally disposed, weakly or scarcely triple- nerved, the larger ones oblanceolate or a bit wider, 5-25 נ0.8-4 cm, ±toothed; infl paniculiform, sometimes long, narrow, and merely nodding at the tip, varying to more ample and sometimes with long divergent, recurved-secund branches; invol bracts imbricate, glabrous except for the ciliolate margins; rays 5-9, short; disk-fls 3-6; achenes short-hairy; 2n=18, 36. Dry woods and open places, especially in sandy soil; N.S. to Fla., w. to Alta. and Tex. Three vars.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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