Plants 30-130 cm; caudices small, woody, rhizomes creeping, elongate. Stems 1-10, ascending to erect, uniformly finely strigillose-villous distal to mid. Leaves: basal cauline nearly always withering well before flowering, linear-oblanceolate, smaller than proximal mid cauline, serrate; proximal persisting, sometimes brown-black after senescence, often twisted; proximal to distal numerous (100+ on tall stems) , crowded, sessile, blades (bright green) linear to linear-lanceolate, 20-70 × 2-7(-10) mm, margins remotely serrulate (proximal) to entire or with 1-2 minute serrations (distal), obscurely 3-nerved, one or both faces glabrous or finely strigillose. Heads 100-300+, in short to elongate, pyramidal paniculiform arrays, branches recurved, secund. Peduncles 1-4 mm, finely strigilloso-villous; bracteoles 0-2, linear, grading into phyllaries. Involucres narrowly campanulate, 2.5-3.5 mm. Phyllaries in 3-4 series, strongly unequal; outer ovate, acute, inner oblong, obtuse to rounded. Ray florets 2-8; laminae 1-2 × 0.25-0.5 mm. Disc florets 2-4(-6); corollas 2.3-3.5 mm, lobes 0.4-1 mm. Cypselae (narrowly obconic) 1 mm, strigillose; pappi 2-3 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering Aug-Nov (year-round). Dry, usually sandy soils, pinelands, embankments; 0-100+ m; Ala., Ark., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.C., S.C., Tex., Va.

Stems 3-13 dm from long creeping rhizomes, uniformly puberulent above the middle; lvs chiefly cauline, very numerous, sessile, linear to lance- linear or narrowly oblong, the larger ones 2.5-7 cm נ2-7(-10) mm, glabrous or ±scabrous on one or both surfaces, not prominently veined (but sometimes obscurely triple-nerved), usually at least some of the lower ones remotely serrulate; infl paniculiform, with recurved-secund branches; invol 2.5-3.5 mm, yellowish; rays 2-6, small; disk-fls 2-6; achenes short-hairy; 2n=18. Dry, usually sandy soil, often in pinelands; coastal plain from Va. to Fla. and Tex.

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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