Plants 30–200 cm; caudices short, simple, rhizomes long, stoloni-form. Stems 1–5(–10) , ascending to erect (tall stems sometimes arching), branching proximal to arrays only in damaged stems, glabrous. Leaves: basal subsessile to winged-petiolate, petioles of proximalmost nearly completely sheathing stems, blades oblanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, 60–600 × 3–20(–50) mm, thick and firm, obtuse to rounded, bases tapering, margins entire or obscurely serrate, glabrous; proximal to distal cauline sessile, ascending to nearly appressed, lanceolate-oblong to linear, 10–30 × 2–4 mm, abruptly reduced proximally, then gradually so distally, margins entire, apices acute, faces glabrous. Heads 15–250 , sometimes secund on proximal branches and secund terminus, in linear, narrowly elongate paniculiform to elongate pyramidal-secund or thyrsiform-paniculiform and not secund arrays, sometimes with a few elongate proximal, arching branches. Peduncles slender, 2–10 mm, glabrous or sparsely strigillose; bracteoles linear. Involucres narrowly campanulate, 4–6 mm. Phyllaries in 3–4 series, oblong, unequal, acute to rounded, glabrous. Ray florets 3–7, 1.5–2 × ca. 0.5 mm. Disc florets usually 8–12; corollas 3–5 mm, lobes 1–1.2 mm. Cypselae 1.5–2.5 mm, sparsely to moderately strigose; pappi 3 mm.
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Glabrous perennial 3–20 dm with a short, simple caudex and long stoloniform rhizomes; lvs basally disposed, thick and firm, the lowest ones oblanceolate or elliptic-oblanceolate, sometimes very narrowly so, 6–30 × 0.3–2(–5) cm, entire or obscurely serrate; cauline lvs abruptly reduced and sessile, entire, the middle and upper ones numerous, erect, often scarcely more than mere bracts; infl narrow, elongate, naked, sometimes nodding at the tip, the short branches occasionally recurved-secund; heads on slender, flexuous, minutely bracteolate peduncles; invol 4–6 mm; rays 3–7; disk-fls 8–12; achenes hairy, sometimes sparsely so; 2n=18, 36, 54. Sandy, usually moist places, especially among pines, or sometimes in coastal marshes, where it hybridizes with no. 15; coastal plain from N.J. to Fla., Tex., W.I., and s. Mex. (S. petiolata, misapplied)
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