Plants 40-120 cm (crowns short, woody). Stems 1, ascending to erect, slightly to strongly flexuous, striate, glabrous. Cauline leaves: mid and distal not crowded, blades broadly lanceolate to oblanceolate, 50-130 × 15-45 mm, reduced and narrower distally, bases cuneate, margins flat to ± involute, finely ciliate, apices acuminate, faces glabrous or sparsely hairy. Heads (1-)3-33(-78). Peduncles 1-10 mm (leafless or nearly so), sparsely to moderately canescent; bracts linear-lanceolate to broadly lanceolate. Involucres 3.8-6.8 mm. Phyllaries in 4-5 series, midveins usually swollen and translucent, apices narrowly rounded , glabrate. Rays (3-)4-8(-11); laminae 6-12(-14.5) × 1-3.3 mm. Disc florets 4-13(-20); corollas 4-7 mm, lobes 2.5-3.5 mm, 50-75% of limbs. Cypselae 1.8-3.8 mm, 6-10-ribbed, glabrous, rarely sparsely strigose, sometimes sparsely glandular; pappi: outer 0.5-1 mm, inner 3.9-5 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering mid summer-early fall. Rich loam and dry rocky soils, deciduous woods, mountains and adjacent plateaus; 10-100 m; Ala., Conn., Del., Fla., Ga., Ky., Md., Mass., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Va., W.Va.

Doellingeria infirma is found in the Appalachian Mountains, the Piedmont and adjacent plateaus, to northern Florida.