Plants 20-80 cm. Corms elongated into rhizomes, irregularly shaped (sometimes with thickened, fibrous roots). Stems piloso-puberulent to hirsute. Leaves: basal and proximal cauline 1-nerved, linear to linear-oblanceolate, 120-300 × 3-8 mm, gradually reduced distally to ± midstem, abruptly reduced to ± uniform bracts distally, essentially glabrous, gland-dotted (margins sometimes sparsely ciliate). Heads in dense, spiciform arrays. Peduncles 0 or 1-5(-10) mm. Involucres cylindro-campanulate, 8-10 × 4-5 mm. Phyllaries in 3-4(-5) series, ovate to oblong-oblanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, strongly unequal, usually essentially glabrous, sometimes sparsely strigose to pilosulous, margins with hyaline borders, ciliolate, apices acute (inner with slightly subterminal, `rolled´ apicula), ciliolate. Florets 6-10; corolla tubes glabrous inside. Cypselae 3-3.5 mm; pappi: lengths ± equaling corollas, bristles barbellate. 2n = 20.

Flowering Jul-Sep. Wet flats with palmetto and longleaf or slash pine, oak-palmetto, pine-live oak, grass-sedge bogs, sandy loam, sandy peat; 0-30 m; Fla.; West Indies (Bahamas).