Shrubs, 10–30 dm. Twigs strigose to hirsute, trichomes white. Leaves opposite; petiole 1.4–8.5(–11.5) cm, glabrous or glabrous abaxially and sparsely tomentose adaxially; blade ovate, elliptic-ovate, or broadly ovate, (2.7–)6–17.8 × (1.4–)2.5–12(–15.5) cm, unlobed, base cordate, truncate, or cuneate, margins dentate to serrate, apex acute to acuminate, abaxial surface green, glabrous or glabrate, or sparsely hirsute along midvein and sometimes along lateral veins, trichomes at 40× conspicuously tuberculate, 0.3–1 mm, adaxial surface green, glabrous or sparsely hirsute. Inflorescences compact, 100–500-flowered, dome-shaped to hemispheric, (3.3–)4–14 × 3.6–12 cm; peduncle 1.5–7.8 cm, sparsely tomentose. Pedicels 1–2.5 mm, glabrous or sparsely hirsute. Sterile flowers absent or present, white, greenish white, or yellowish white, tube 6–16 mm, lobes 3–4(–5), obovate to broadly ovate, round, or elliptic, 3.6–15 × 2.2–14 mm. Bisexual flowers: hypanthium adnate to ovary to near its apex, 0.7–1 × 0.8–1.2 mm, strongly 8–10(–11)-ribbed in fruit, glabrous; sepals deltate to triangular, 0.2–0.5 × 0.2–0.5 mm, margins entire, apex acute to acuminate, abaxial surface glabrous; petals caducous, white to yellowish white, elliptic to narrowly ovate, 1–1.5 × 0.6–1.1 mm; filaments 2–4.5 × 0.1–0.2 mm; anthers 0.3–0.5 mm; pistils 2(–3)-carpellate, ovary completely inferior or nearly so; styles 2(–3), distinct, 0.9–1.2 mm. Capsules hemispheric, 1.2–2.1 × 1.7–2.5 mm. Seeds 0.3–0.6(–0.8) mm. 2n = 36.
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Straggling shrub 1–3 m; lvs ovate-oblong to broadly round-ovate, acuminate, serrate, subcordate to acute at base, glabrous above; infl flat-topped or broadly convex, 5–10 cm wide, fertile throughout or with some marginal fls sterile or rarely wholly sterile (the wholly sterile form often cult.); pet 5, white, 3 mm; stamens 10; ovary inferior, with 2(3) carpels; sep of the sterile fls (3)4, subrotund, nearly 1 cm, white, reticulate-veined; seeds elliptic, with blunt ends; 2n=36. Dry or moist, often rocky woods and hillsides; s. N.Y. to O., Mo., and Okla., s. to Ga., La., and Ark. June, July. The widespread var. arborescens has the lvs glabrous or with only a few scattered hairs along the midrib beneath. The well marked var. discolor Ser. (var. deamii) occurring from c. Ind. and Ill. to N.C., Ga., and Okla., has the lvs ± densely pubescent beneath with minutely tuberculate hairs. The var. discolor might perhaps equally well be treated as a distinct, closely allied species, H. cinerea Small.
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