Annuals or winter annuals (sometimes faintly fragrant), (10-)30-100 cm; taprooted. Stems white-tomentose, sometimes lightly so, usually not glandular, rarely glandular near bases. Leaf blades linear-lanceolate to elliptic or oblanceolate, 2.5-10 cm × 2-10 mm (relatively even-sized), bases not clasping, not decurrent, margins flat, faces bicolor, abaxial white-tomentose, adaxial green, usually glabrous or slightly glandular, sometimes with persistent light tomentum. Heads in corymbiform (sometimes rounded to elongate) arrays. Involucres broadly campanulate, 5-7 mm. Phyllaries in 4-6 series, white (opaque, usually shiny, sometimes dull), ovate to ovate-oblong, glabrous or tomentose (bases). Pistillate florets 38-96. Bisexual florets 4-8(-11). Cypselae ridged, smooth. Flowering Aug-Oct. Open sites, often disturbed, roadsides, fields, pastures, open woods, in various soils, most abundantly in sand; 5-200 m; N.B., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que.; Ala., Ark., Conn., Del., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., La., Maine, Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., Nebr., N.H., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.