Plants 30-80 cm. Stems ± densely hirsute, particularly distally. Leaves membranous, becoming thickish, brittle; basal and proximal winged-petiolate; proximal cauline blade bases cordate, becoming rounded-truncate distally. Heads in open, paniculiform arrays with very long, widely spreading branches. Peduncles 1-4 cm, densely, minutely bracteate. Involucres turbinate to hemispheric, 3.8-5.2 mm. Ray corollas bluish white. Cypselae strigillose. 2n = 32. Flowering Sep-Nov (seldom spring). Loamy soils or well-drained clays, bottomlands, open deciduous woods, oak-juniper woodlands; 0-100+ m; Ark., Kans., La., Miss., Mo., Okla., Tex.; Mexico (Coahuila). Variety texanum is known mainly from the Ozarks, east-central Texas, and the Edwards Plateau; it is disjunct to Coahuila (G. L. Nesom 1993g).