Much branched annual to 1 m, puberulent to glandular-hairy; principal lvs 3-6 cm, sessile or subsessile, pinnatifid, with 5-8 pairs of irregularly serrate or deeply cleft pinnae; pedicels upcurved, 1-2 cm at anthesis, stipitate-glandular; cal and cor stipitate-glandular or glandular-hairy, the cal-lobes spreading, foliaceous, 7-10 mm, crenate or pinnatifid to entire; cor yellow, tinged or marked with brown (the other spp. merely yellow), 2.5-4 cm; fr ellipsoid or ovoid, glandular-hairy, 10-15 mm; seeds 0.8-1 mm, wingless; 2n=28. Dry upland woods; s. Me. to e. Minn., s. to Fla. and La. Aug., Sept. (Gerardia p.; Dasistoma p.) Four vars. in our range:

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.

This variety is infrequent in northern Indiana and its range probably can be extended only to a few counties adjacent to those shown on the map. There are reports from Tippecanoe and White Counties. It is found only in very sandy, slightly acid soil. It usually grows in oak woods in low areas surrounded by Vaccinium angustifolium or in somewhat moist, rarely dry, sandy places near the bases of oak slopes.

This form of the species is known from only two of our northwestern counties - Lake and Newton Counties. The habitat is the same as that of the next variety [var. ambigens].

Known in Indiana only from specimens collected in very sandy soil in a black and white oak clearing in the northern part of Newton County. This form is found mostly along the Atlantic coast.