Stems 4-12 dm from a branched caudex, glabrous or ±spreading- hirsute; lvs chiefly cauline, entire, firm, glabrous except for the scabrous-ciliolate margins and sometimes some coarse hairs on the midrib beneath, broadly linear to oblong or lance-elliptic, sessile or subpetiolate, not clasping, 6-10 cm נ8-20 mm, the upper more reduced, those of the often long and wiry branches becoming bract-like; heads usually ±numerous, turbinate, conspicuously long-pedunculate, the peduncles beset with minute, mostly appressed bracts; invol glabrous, 7-12 mm, its bracts obtuse or rounded, multiseriate, the outer narrow and small, passing into those of the peduncles, the inner much broader, shortly green-tipped; rays 15-20, violet, 8-12 mm; achenes strigillose and minutely punctate; pappus tawny-rufescent; 2n=96-100. Mostly in dry, open places and open woods; c. Ill. to La. and e. Kans.

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.