Leaves sessile; blades elliptic to elliptic-obovate, 5-18(-24) cm, margins denticulate, abaxial faces densely white-tomentose, adaxial faces green, glabrous or glabrate. Heads nodding in bud and fruit, erect in flowering. Peduncles ebracteate, 5-20 cm at flowering, 25-40 cm in fruit, not dilated distally. Florets: outer pistillate, corollas creamy white (with purple, abaxial midstripe), laminae 0.9-1.5 mm wide; inner florets functionally staminate. Cypselae 3.8-5.1 mm, beaks stout, lengths 0.2-0.25 times bodies, faces (bodies only) glabrous, beaks hairy (hairs spreading-ascending, swollen-apiculate). 2n = 48.

Flowering Dec-Apr(-May in North Carolina). Coastal plain pinelands, sandy soils in grass-sedge bogs, along ditches, open areas, thin woods; 0-50 m; Ala., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.C., S.C., Tex.