Annuals, (15-)30-60(-150) cm. Leaves: petioles 10-30 mm; blades lanceolate to lance-linear overall, 30-80(-150) × 10-30(-50) mm, usually laciniately pinnatisect, primary lobes 3-7+, 15-60+ × 2-20 mm, bases cuneate, ultimate margins laciniate to serrate, ciliate, apices acuminate, faces glabrous or sparsely scabrellous. Heads in ± corymbiform arrays. Peduncles (10-)30-80+ mm. Calyculi of 8-12(-16) usually spreading to reflexed, linear, seldom foliaceous bractlets (4-)5-7(-12) mm, margins entire, ciliate, abaxial faces glabrous or ± scabrellous. Involucres ± hemispheric or broader, 6-8(-12) × 10-15 mm. Phyllaries 7-8(-13), lance-ovate to lance-linear, 6-8(-12) mm. Ray florets (5-)8-10+; laminae yellow, 10-25 mm. Disc florets (12-)20-40+; corollas yellowish, 2-3+ mm. Cypselae red-brown to blackish, ± flattened (unequally 3-4-angled), broadly cuneate, outer (4-)5-6 mm, inner 5-7 mm (lengths mostly 1.5-2.5 times widths), margins (± corky-winged) patently to antrorsely barbed, apices truncate to concave, faces weakly striate, sometimes tuberculate, glabrous or sparsely strigillose; pappi 0, or of 2(-4) spreading to divergent, antrorsely or retrorsely barbed awns (0.5-)2-4(-6) mm. Flowering Aug-Oct(-Nov). Marshes, meadows, pine forests, disturbed sites; 0-300 m; Ont.; Ala., Ark., D.C., Ill., Ind., Ky., La., Md., Mich., Minn., Mo., N.C., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va.