Plants 20-100 cm; caudices branched, sometimes elongate. Stems usually single, glabrous proximally, hirsuto-puberulent in arrays, sometimes irregularly or decurrently so proximally. Leaves: proximalmost withering, smaller; basal and proximal cauline tapering to winged petioles, blades elliptic to elliptic-obovate or subrhombic, mostly 60-150 × 10-50 mm, margins serrate, usually acuminate, glabrous or scabrellous distally; mid and distal cauline sessile, blades mostly rhombic-elliptic to narrowly lanceolate, 20-40 × 5-8 mm. Heads 50-250, in elongate, narrowly paniculiform arrays, leafy-bracteate proximally, not secund, proximal branches sometimes elongated and ascending. Peduncles 1-4 mm, bracteolate. Involucres campanulate, 4-6 mm. Phyllaries in 3-4 series, appressed, unequal (outer ¹ / 2 length of inner), linear to lanceolate-deltate (inner series usually striate with 2 prominent secondary nerves), apices narrowly acute or minutely obtuse. Ray florets 6-9; laminae 2-3 × 1-1.5 mm. Disc florets mostly 8-12; corollas 4-4.5 mm, lobes 1-1.5 mm. Cypselae (tan) 1.75-2.5 mm, usually glabrous, sometimes sparsely strigose; pappi 1.5-2.5 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering Jul-Sep. Woods and clearings, edges of balds, crevices in rocks, mountain provinces; 500-2000 m; Ala., Ga., Md., N.C., S.C., Tenn., Va., W.Va.

Stems 2-10 dm from a branched, sometimes elongate caudex, hirsute-puberulent in the infl and sometimes irregularly or decurrently so below, lvs basally disposed, thin, glabrous, or scaberulous above, tending to be acuminate, the larger mostly 6-15 נ2-5 cm, with elliptic to elliptic-obovate or subrhombic, serrate blade, the others mostly rhombic to lance- elliptic; infl long and narrow, leafy-bracteate below, not secund; invol 4-5 mm, its bracts thin and slender (less than 0.75 mm wide at midlength), tapering to a narrowly acute or minutely obtuse tip; rays 6-9, 2-3 mm; disk fls 8-12; achenes glabrous or sometimes sparsely hairy; 2n=18. Woods and clearing in the mts.; Va., Md., sw. Pa., and W.Va. to Tenn., S.C., and Ga. (S. monticola, a preoccupied name)

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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