Buds glabrous or densely hairy. Inflorescences conspicuously bracteate, or at least proximal inflorescences with leaflike bracts; bracts variable, some leaflike, 5-30 mm, others 1-2 mm, similar to bracteoles. Pedicels 2.5-10 mm.

Flowering spring-early summer. Moist pine forests and flatwoods, acid shrub thickets and shrub bogs, streamhead pocosins and baygalls, marshy areas, beaver pond margins, stream or pond margins, acidic swamps; 0-300 m; Ala., Ark., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.C., Okla., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va.