Leaves: basal 15-40 × 10-25 cm, blades pinnately compound to pinnatifid; proximal and mid cauline blades 5-9-lobed (distal cauline 3-lobed or not lobed); adaxial leaf faces glabrous or sparsely hairy. Receptacles globose to ovoid; paleae 4.4-6.1 mm. Ray laminae 20-45 × 7-18 mm. Discs 15-20 × 10-20 mm. Cypselae 4.2-6 mm; pappi to 0.7 mm. 2n = 36, 54.

Flowering summer-fall. Wet sites, along streams, edges of woods; 10-600 m; Man., N.B., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que.; Ala., Ark., Conn., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., La., Maine, Md., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., Nebr., N.H., N.Y., N.C., N.Dak., Ohio, Okla., Pa., S.C., S.Dak., Tenn., Tex., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.

Golden-glow is a cultivated form of this species. In our area, this species varies in the pubescence of the lower surface of the leaves from glabrous to densely short-pubescent. The rays of our plants are spreading. infrequent, but usually in large colonies, on the moist, alluvial bottoms of streams in the open or in woods, and rarer in low woodland and about lakes.