Plants 75-140 cm. Leaves: basal persistent; cauline mostly whorled (in 3s); faces glabrous or sparsely hairy. Paleae puberulent. Ray florets 11-16. Disc florets 35-90. 2n = 14.

Flowering mid summer-early fall. Prairies, meadows, roadsides, along railways; 100-900 m; Ala., Ga., Ill., Ind., Ky., Md., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Pa., S.C., Tenn., Va., W.Va.

Infrequent to rare in dry soil on open, wooded slopes in two widely separated parts of the state. Beyond the area shown on the map, it has been reported from Carroll, Cass, Knox, and La Porte Counties. This species, like the next, is variable and in certain forms it is separated from it with difficulty. In the typical form, the leaves are lanceolate, dark green, some whorled, and generally with nearly entire margins. Non-typical plants may have only opposite leaves or some alternate ones, and narrow-ovate blades. The inner face of the achenes is glabrous or pubescent, usually the latter.

Lvs mostly ternate or quaternate, occasionally opposite, seldom partly alternate, scabrous above, hirsute at least on the midrib beneath, the blade lanceolate or lance-elliptic to rather narrowly lance-ovate, (2.5-)3-5 times as long as wide, 7-20 נ1.5-5 cm, tapering to a hirsute-ciliate petiole to 1.5 cm, or to a shortly subpetiolar base; n. var., from se. Pa. to O. and Ind., s. to Va. and in the mt. region to Ga.

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

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.