Coarse biennial (1–)1.5–3.5 m, branching and many-headed when well developed, the heads commonly solitary at the ends of long, slender, subnaked branches; stem glabrous or with crisp spreading hairs; lvs arachnoid-tomentose beneath when young, generally eventually glabrate, smooth or somewhat crisp-hairy on the upper surface, thin, deeply pinnatifid, the lobes generally again toothed or cleft; larger (lower) lvs to 6 × 1.5 dm, but often soon deciduous; invol 1.5–2.5 cm, the middle and outer bracts with a glutinous dorsal ridge and tipped with a weak, abruptly spreading spine mostly 1–2(–3) mm, the inner bracts innocuous and merely attenuate, often crisped but not expanded; fls pink or lavender (often very pale) to white; achenes 3–4 mm; 2n=24, 28. Wet or dry, usually sandy soil, often in thickets; se. Va.; S.C. to Fla. and La. June–Aug.
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