Stem 4–10 dm from a crown or short, stout rhizome, hirtellous or puberulent to sometimes merely strigose; lvs opposite, lance-oblong to linear-oblong or oblanceolate, 3–8 cm × 3–10(–13) mm, toothed or entire, sessile, glandular-punctate; invol 5–7 mm, its bracts imbricate, narrow, tapering to a long-acuminate or mucronately subattenuate point, conspicuously villous-puberulent and often also atomiferous-glandular, their scarious margins mostly inconspicuous; fls 5, the cor white, 3–4 mm; 2n=20, 30, 40. Pine-barrens, wet meadows, and margins of ponds, especially in sandy soil; Mass. to Fla. and La., on the coastal plain or near the coast. July–Oct. Var. leucolepis, from N.Y. s., has bluntly few-toothed to entire lvs, often folded along the midrib. Var. novae-angliae Fernald, local in Mass. and R.I., has sharply toothed, flat lvs, often with slightly longer pubescence than in var. leucolepis.
Home