Plants canescent; stems erect or ascending, 1-4 dm; lvs canescent across the surface beneath, those of the basal shoots mostly whorled, elliptic, 5-12 mm, 3-4 times as long as wide, the cauline ones narrowly lanceolate or oblanceolate, to 2 cm; panicle forming half to two- thirds of the plant, with divergent branches; pedicels very hairy; sep hairy, about equaling or slightly exceeding the subglobose or broadly obovoid fr; seeds 2-5(6). Sandy soil near the sea; N.B. to Va.; also inland in N. Engl. The Va. plants have been segregated on minor differences as var. virginica Hodgdon, and those from N.B. as var. subcylindrica Hodgdon.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
