toloniferous colonial shrub 3-15 dm; lvs oblong to broadly elliptic or subrotund, 3-5 cm, acute to broadly rounded, finely and sharply serrate chiefly above the middle, the teeth more than twice as many as the veins, which branch and anastomose toward the margin; lvs thinly villous above and densely tomentose beneath when young, soon glabrescent and pale, at anthesis scarcely exserted beyond the bud-scales; fls in dense, spike-like, scarcely pedunculate erect racemes; pedicels villous-tomentose, 2-6 mm, the lowest becoming 3-12 mm in fr; hypanthium tomentose; sep spreading or ascending, 1.5-2.5 mm; pet obovate, 4-8 mm, half as wide; ovary glabrous at the summit; diploid and polyploid. Open woods, pine-barrens, and streamsides on the coastal plain; N.J. and e. Pa. to S.C. Apr.

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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