Perennials, 30-80 cm. Internodes (± mid stem) 25-50 mm. Leaves: petioles 0-1 mm (or 5-25+ mm, winged, and scarcely distinct from blades); blades not 3-foliolate, most with 3(-5+), ± oblong to linear lobes (5-)15-40+ × 2-3(-7+) mm (sometimes some leaves not lobed). Peduncles 1-4+ cm. Calyculi of 9-12+ oblong to lanceolate bractlets 3-9+ mm. Phyllaries 8, ± oblong to nearly orbiculate, 6-10 mm. Ray laminae 15-25+ mm. Disc florets 60-80+; corollas yellow (sometimes drying blackish), 5-6.5 mm. Cypselae oblong, 5-6 mm. 2n = 26.

Flowering Jun-Aug. Prairies, open woods; 100-300 m; Ark., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., La., Mich., Minn., Mo., Nebr., Okla., S.Dak., Wis.

Rhizomatous perennial 4-9 dm, glabrous except for the scabro-ciliate lf-margins and sometimes hairy nodes; lvs rather numerous, firm, narrow, 3-8 cm, essentially sessile, deeply trilobed at or somewhat below the middle, the lobes linear-oblong, 2-7 mm wide, the central one sometimes again lobed; heads few or solitary, short-pedunculate, the disk yellow, 8-15 mm wide; outer invol bracts 8-12, linear-oblong, nearly equaling the much wider and thinner, broadly rounded or obtuse inner ones; rays 1.5-3 cm, yellow; receptacular bracts linear-clavate, acutish; disk-cors 5- toothed; style appendages cuspidately acute; achenes 5-6.5 mm, narrowly winged; pappus obsolete or of 2 callous teeth; 2n=26. Prairies and open woods; Mich. to Man. s. to La. and Tex. June, July.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

From Flora of Indiana (1940) by Charles C. Deam

All of my specimens and all of the reports are from the northwestern part of the state. It is infrequent and is found in dry, sandy soil in open woodland and in sandy, prairie habitats.