Fibrous-rooted perennial from a short, woody rhizome or branching caudex, 2–8 dm, loosely shaggy-villous with long, flexuous hairs when young, later often ± glabrate; lvs basally disposed, the lower oblanceolate to ovate, petiolate, to 18 × 3.5 cm (petiole included), generally denticulate; middle and upper lvs smaller, lanceolate to oblong or elliptic, sessile; heads in an often congested infl, nearly hemispheric, the disk 1–2 cm wide; invol and peduncles stipitate-glandular, the invol 7–10 mm; rays ca 13 to ca 21, ca 1 cm; achenes obovate, 3–5-nerved; 2n=8, 16, 24, 32, but only 24 with us. Woods and sandy places; s. N.Y. to s. O. and e. Ky., s. to Fla. and La. Aug.–Oct. (Heterotheca m.)
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