Plants 20-100 cm; caudices branched, sometimes elongate. Stems usually single, glabrous proximally, hirsuto-puberulent in arrays, sometimes irregularly or decurrently so proximally. Leaves: proximalmost withering, smaller; basal and proximal cauline tapering to winged petioles, blades elliptic to elliptic-obovate or subrhombic, mostly 60-150 × 10-50 mm, margins serrate, usually acuminate, glabrous or scabrellous distally; mid and distal cauline sessile, blades mostly rhombic-elliptic to narrowly lanceolate, 20-40 × 5-8 mm. Heads 50-250, in elongate, narrowly paniculiform arrays, leafy-bracteate proximally, not secund, proximal branches sometimes elongated and ascending. Peduncles 1-4 mm, bracteolate. Involucres campanulate, 4-6 mm. Phyllaries in 3-4 series, appressed, unequal (outer ¹ / 2 length of inner), linear to lanceolate-deltate (inner series usually striate with 2 prominent secondary nerves), apices narrowly acute or minutely obtuse. Ray florets 6-9; laminae 2-3 × 1-1.5 mm. Disc florets mostly 8-12; corollas 4-4.5 mm, lobes 1-1.5 mm. Cypselae (tan) 1.75-2.5 mm, usually glabrous, sometimes sparsely strigose; pappi 1.5-2.5 mm. 2n = 18. Flowering Jul-Sep. Woods and clearings, edges of balds, crevices in rocks, mountain provinces; 500-2000 m; Ala., Ga., Md., N.C., S.C., Tenn., Va., W.Va.