Plants ca. 45 cm. Stems proximally piloso-hirsute (hairs 1-3+ mm) to glabrate, distally usually glabrous, rarely piloso-hirsute. Leaves: basal 3-6+, cauline 0-1+; blades obovate or elliptic to oblanceolate, 40-60(-120) × 15-35(-50+) mm, lengths 2-3(-4) times widths, bases cuneate, margins usually entire, sometimes denticulate, apices rounded to acute, abaxial faces piloso-hirsute (hairs 2-5 mm) and stellate-pubescent, adaxial glabrous or piloso-hirsute (mostly near margins, hairs 2-3 mm). Heads 4-10(-20+) in corymbiform to paniculiform arrays. Peduncles usually stipitate-glandular, rarely glabrous or glabrate. Calyculi: bractlets 6-10+. Involucres obconic to campanulate, 7-9 mm. Phyllaries 12-13+, apices acute, abaxial faces usually stellate-pubescent and stipitate-glandular, rarely glabrous. Florets 30-45+; corollas yellow (sometimes pale), 7-11 mm. Cypselae (usually black, sometimes red-brown) columnar, 3-4 mm; pappi of ca. 50+, stramineous bristles in ± 2 series, 4-5 mm. Flowering (Apr-)May-Jul(-Sep). Openings in forests, sandy hillsides; 10-300 m; Ont.; Ala., Conn., Del., D.C., Ga., Ill., Ind., Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Miss., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va. Plants of Hieracium venosum with adaxial faces of leaf blades glabrous have been called var. nudicaule.

The type of Hieracium marianum Willdenow may have resulted from a cross between plants of H. venosum and H. gronovii or H. scabrum (M. L. Fernald 1943c).