Fibrous-rooted perennial 3–8 dm, glabrous or merely atomiferous-glandular below, the peduncles and involucres loosely puberulent; lvs relatively few, the basal tufted and generally persistent, oblanceolate or elliptic, usually petioled, 2–17 cm overall and 0.6–2(–3) cm wide; cauline lvs few, reduced, seldom exceeding the internodes, narrowly decurrent; heads 1–3(–6), naked-pedunculate, the disk hemispheric to subglobose, 1–2 cm wide, usually purple-brown or red-brown; rays ca 8 to ca 13, neutral, 1–2.5 cm, trilobed; pappus of 5–10 awnless, often distally rounded scales 1–1.7 mm; 2n=26, 28. Swampy or boggy places and moist pine woods; se. Va. to Fla., La., and Tenn. May, June. (H. curtisii, the rare form with yellow disk)