Perennials, 50-200 cm; fibrous-rooted. Stems minutely hirtellous to strigillose and sessile-glandular (winged by decurrent leaf bases). Leaves sessile; blades usually lanceolate to lance-elliptic (proximal sometimes spatulate or oblanceolate), mostly 5-15 × 1-3(-4) cm, margins shallowly and closely toothed, faces minutely hirtellous to strigillose and sessile-glandular. Heads in corymbiform arrays. Involucres hemispheric to cupulate, 4-7 × 8-10 mm. Phyllaries greenish to cream, ± stipitate-glandular (outer oval-oblong to linear-attenuate). Corollas white or rose-purple. Pappi persistent, bristles distinct. 2n = 20.

Flowering Jul-Aug. Moist or wet, open habitats, ballast deposit areas; 0-10 m; introduced; Ala., Fla.; West Indies; South America.

Pluchea sagittalis is adventive, probably a waif; it was collected as a ballast weed by C. Mohr near Mobile (1891, 1894, 1896) and by A. H. Curtiss near Pensacola (1886, 1901).