Usually in the open in alluvial soil along or near streams in open woods, in prairies, and more rarely in fallow fields or on washed slopes.

Coarse, erect biennial or winter-annual, branched above, ±hairy, and glandular at least in the infl; lvs lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, to 12 cm, narrowed to the base, remotely or obscurely denticulate or sinuate; spikes several, many-fld; sep 6-18 mm, reflexed in pairs; pet 6-15 mm, turning pink or red; anthers 2-5 mm; fr short-hairy, 5-9 mm, 4-sided, with a prominent thick rib on each angle and a slender one on each face, fusiform, tapering to a sessile or subsessile base; 2n=14. Open places, often in disturbed habitats; Mass. to Wis. and Neb., s. to N.C., Ala., and Tex. July- Oct. Two cytologically distinctive but hybridizing and morphologically confluent vars.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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