Plants 10-60 cm. Leaves mostly basal (distal slightly reduced); basal petiolate; blades 3-nerved, elliptic, oblanceolate, or spatulate, 5-10 cm × 5-15 mm. Heads 1-2, 20-30 mm diam. Peduncles 20-40 cm. Phyllaries 5-10 × 2-3 mm, apices obtuse. Paleae linear-spatulate, apices obtuse. Corollas white, lobes 2.5-6 × 0.5-1 mm. Pappi: scale margins entire or denticulate. 2n = 18. Flowering May-Jun. Understories, pine forests; 100-1000 m; Ala., Fla., Ga., N.C., S.C., Va. Marshallia obovata grows on the piedmont and on the Atlantic coastal plain. Scapiform plants with the leafy parts of stems less than ¹/4 lengths of peduncles are sometimes known as var. scaposa. They occur along the inner Atlantic coastal plain.