Widely branched, densely cinereous-hairy perennial 0.5–1.5 m; lower lvs ovate in outline, ± pinnatifid, the upper progressively reduced, the bracteal ones laciniate to entire; pedicels stout, 4–10 mm at anthesis, abruptly upcurved; cal-tube hemispheric, longer than the lanceolate or triangular, entire or toothed lobes; cor 4–5 cm; fr glabrous, ovoid, 15–20 mm. Upland woods; nw. Ind. to s. Wis. and se. Minn., s. to La. and Tex. July–Sept. (Gerardia g.; Dasistoma g.) Our plants are mostly var. pulchra Pennell, with the upper and bracteal lvs sharply serrate to deeply laciniate. The southern and Ozarkian var. serrata (Torr.) Pennell, with the upper and bracteal lvs entire to shallowly serrate, barely enters our range in Mo. (var. cinerea)
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