Stems mostly solitary from a crown or very short, stout rhizome, 4–10 dm, conspicuously spreading-villous at least below (except often in var. vaseyi), often merely villous-puberulent above; lvs opposite, elliptic to elliptic-ovate, lance-elliptic, or elliptic-oblanceolate, sessile or nearly so, 4–13 × 1–4 cm, the larger ones seldom less than 1.5 cm wide except sometimes in var. subvenosum, glandular-punctate, evidently hairy to sometimes subglabrous; infl dense, corymbiform, ± flat-topped; invol 8–11 mm, often with dark sessile glands, otherwise generally glabrous or only slightly hairy, its bracts imbricate, conspicuously white-scarious upward (especially the inner), all narrow and long-acuminate, or the inner with broader, more rounded, mucronate tip; fls 5, the cor white, 4–5.5 mm; 2n=20, 30, 40. Dry, open woods, especially in sandy pinelands; coastal states from s. Conn. to c. Fla. and w. to Miss., also inland in the mt. regions to s. O. and e. Ky. and Tenn., and in Ark. The sp. consists of a widespread, common diploid phase and two more sporadic or local polyploid phases that reflect hybridization with other spp.:
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