Plants 1-2 m, branches spread-ing. Leaves: petiole 10-15 mm; blade oblong, lanceolate, oblanceolate, or elliptic, 3-8 cm, margins entire or spinulose-serrulate, apex acute to long-acuminate, abaxial surface sparsely pilose. Inflorescences fascicled or solitary, sessile, dense, 20-60-flowered, 4-10 cm; bracts ± persistent, ovate-deltate, 1.7-2.2 mm. Pedicels 2-2.5 mm. Flowers: sepals whitish, lanceolate-ovate, 1.7-2 mm, apex acute or subacute; corolla cylindric, 5-7 mm; filaments papillate (sometimes also spreading-hairy); anthers 1.2-1.5 mm, with 2 awns, thecae divergent distally; ovary glabrous. Capsules 5-6 mm wide. Seeds ellipsoid or oblong; testa firm, reticulate. 2n = 22.

Flowering mid spring. Woods along mountain streams, mountain ravines, moist slopes, often associated with Rhododendron maximum; 200-2000 m; Ala., Ga., N.C., S.C., Tenn., Va.