Fibrous-rooted perennial from long rhizomes; stems 1–2 m, glabrous and glaucous; lvs mostly or all opposite, glabrous or nearly so above, glabrous and stronglyglaucous beneath, lanceolate, mostly 9–15 × 1.5–3.5 cm, entire or serrulate, tapering to a sessile or subsessile base; heads rather few, on long peduncles often 1–1.5 dm; disk yellow, 1.2–2 cm wide; invol bracts firm, lance-acuminate, ciliolate, about equaling the disk; rays 10–14, to 2 cm; 2n=102. Rocky hills and barrens; ec. Ky. to c. Tenn. Aug., Sept.