Plants 1-2 m, branches spread-ing. Leaves: petiole 5-10 mm; blade oblong, lanceolate, oblanceolate, or elliptic, 3-8 cm, margins entire or spinulose-serrulate, apex acute to abruptly short-acuminate, abaxial surface glabrous or sparsely hairy. Inflorescences fascicled or solitary, sessile, dense, 8-30-flowered, 2-4(-5) cm; bracts ± deciduous, ovate, 2-2.5 mm. Pedicels 2.2-2.5 mm. Flowers: sepals whitish, broadly ovate, 1.5-2 mm, apex obtuse or rounded; corolla cylindric, 6-8 mm; filaments spreading-hairy, papillate; anthers 0.7-1.2 mm, with 2 awns, thecae divergent distally; ovary glabrous. Capsules (4.5-)5-6 mm wide. Seeds angular; testa firm, papillose. 2n = 22. Flowering early-mid spring. Flood plains of black-water streams, coastal plain; 0-200 m; Ala., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.C., S.C., Va.