Perennials, 30-70 cm. Stems (from short, stout rhizomes) single, branched distally, puber-ulent. Leaves usually opposite (distal sometimes alternate); sessile; blades pinnately nerved, elliptic to ovate, 20-80 × 10-30 mm, bases cuneate, margins serrate to crenate-serrate, apices rounded to acute, faces sparsely villous (abaxial), glabrate (adaxial), little, if at all, gland-dotted. Heads in corymbiform arrays. Phyllaries 9-15 in 2-4 series, linear, 4-10 × 0.6-1 mm, apices (white) acuminate to attenuate, strongly mucronate, abaxial faces glabrous, not gland-dotted. Florets (4-)5; corollas 3-3.5 mm. Cypselae 2.5-3 mm; pappi of 40-50 bristles 3.5-4 mm. 2n = 20.

Flowering Jul-Sep. Upland scrub oak and longleaf pinewoods, fine textured, loamy soils; 20-100+ m; Ala., Fla., Ga., Miss.

Eupatorium petaloideum is commonly combined with E. album; it has recently been separated as a distinct variety. V. I. Sullivan (1972) found the two taxa to be distinct chemically and to occupy different habitats. In both, the involucral bracts are white and long-acuminate or mucronate; those of E. petaloideum are almost entirely devoid of any pubescence including glands and those of E. album have both simple and glandular hairs.