Plants 30-150 cm; caudices branching. Stems 1-5+, erect, glabrous proximal to arrays. Leaves: basal and proximal cauline tapering quickly to long, winged ciliate-margined petioles, blades ovate, 50-200 × 20-100 mm, margins serrate; mid to distal cauline sessile, blades oblanceolate, 30-100 × 8-35 mm, reduced distally and becoming lanceolate-ovate, margins entire, abaxially sparsely strigose along nerves. Heads 20-200, not secund, in narrow, elongate arrays of axillary and terminal racemiform clusters, branches and peduncles hairy, leafy-bracteate proximally. Peduncles 8-10 mm. Involucres 5-9 mm. Phyllaries (20-26) in 4-6 series, recurved, unequal, conspicuously spreading, lanceolate, margins ciliate, apices acute to obtuse, finely strigose. Ray florets 10-16; laminae 4-6.5 × 0.4-0.6 mm. Disc florets 15-30; corollas 5-5.6 mm, lobes 0.5-1.2 mm. Cypselae (obconic) 1.5-2 mm, glabrous; pappi 3-4.3 mm. 2n = 18. Flowering Aug-Sep. Dry woods, fields and rocky slopes; 0-1000+ m; N.B., Ont., Que.; Conn., Del., Ind., Ky., Maine, Mass., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Pa., R.I., Vt., Va., W.Va.