Plants 50-150 cm (short- to long-rhizomatous). Stems usually 1, ascending to erect, striate, glab-rous proximal to heads. Cauline leaves: mid and distal crowded, blades lanceolate (proximal) to ovate (distal), 30-110 × 15-40 mm, reduced distally, stiff, bases cuneate, margins involute to weakly revolute, finely ciliate, apices acuminate, faces glabrous or sparsely hairy. Heads (8-) 30-130(-200). Peduncles 1-10 mm, sparsely to moderately canescent; bracts linear-lanceolate to broadly lanceolate. Involucres 3.2-6 mm. Phyllaries in 3-4 series, midveins often swollen, translucent apically, apices broadly rounded, glabrate. Rays 2-7; laminae (6-)8-12(-14.5) × 1-3 mm. Disc florets 4-13(-20); corollas 4-7 mm, lobes 2-4.2 mm, 60-75% of limbs. Cypselae 1.5-3.7 mm, 6-8-ribbed, sparsely strigose; pappi: outer 0.4-1.1 mm, inner 4-7 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering fall. Bogs, wet thickets and woods, coastal plain; 10-200 m; Ala., Del., Fla., Ga., Md., N.J., N.C., Okla., S.C., Tex., Va.

Doellingeria sericocarpoides is uncommon in eastern Texas and southeastern Oklahoma.