Inflorescences dense to diffuse, 21-85 × 2-14 cm, internodes in floral branchlets 0.7-3 mm. Pedicels 0.9-3 mm. Flowers: hypanthium obconic or subglobose, long stipitate-glandular; petals tightly coiled, linear or narrowly lanceolate, 0.1-0.2 mm wide. 2n = 14. Flowering Jun-Sep. Shaded rocks and ledges, granite, gneiss, or acidic humus over limestone or shallow rocky soil; 100-2000 m; Ala., Ga., Ind., Ky., Miss., Mo., N.C., Ohio, Pa., S.C., Tenn., Va., W.Va. Variety villosa is found east of the Prairies in the southern Appalachian Mountains and Interior Plateau of Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee. In the high mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, the leaf lobes tend to be very sharp and narrowly triangular, and in the Interior Plateau the lobes tend to be rounded; considerable variation in lobe shape occurs throughout the range.