Perennials or subshrubs, 30-100 cm. Stems (erect, striate-angled) glabrous, not glaucous. Leaves ascending to spreading-ascending; blades 3- or -5-nerved, lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, 40-80 × 3-6(-9) mm, lengths 8-18 times widths, abruptly reduced distally, firm-herbaceous, margins scabrous, apices mostly acute, faces glabrous, little and obscurely gland-dotted (9-29 dots per mm²), sometimes pustulate. Heads glomerate or pedunculate, in compact, usually round-topped arrays 6-35% of plant heights. Involucres obconic, 4-6 mm. Phyllaries yellowish at bases, usually green-tipped, outer narrowly ovate, inner nearly linear, apices rounded to subacute (sometimes slightly resinous). Ray florets usually 7-14. Disc florets 3-6; corollas 3.3-4.4 mm. 2n = 18. Flowering Sep-Nov. Moist, sandy soils of open areas, woodlands, and forest openings; 0-100 m; Ala., Ark., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., Mo., N.C., Okla., Tenn., Tex. I have seen no specimens of Euthamia leptocephala from Kentucky; it is to be expected there.