Plants 60-120+ cm (perennating bases ± erect or horizontal rhizomes, internodes winged). Leaves all or mostly alternate (proximal sometimes opposite); blades ± lance-ovate to lanceolate, 5-12+ × 2-5+ cm, bases ± cuneate, margins ± toothed, apices acute to attenuate, faces strigose to sericeous. Heads 2-5(-10+) in ± corymbiform arrays. Involucres ± hemispheric, 10-15+ mm diam. Phyllaries 16-21+ in 2-3 series, ± erect, lanceolate, 6-9+ mm. Ray florets 8-13+; laminae 20-25(-30+) mm. Disc florets 40-80+; corollas yellow. Cypselae dark brown to black, oblanceolate to elliptic, 5 mm, faces strigillose to glabrate; pappi 0.5-1.5 mm. 2n = 34. Flowering May-Jul. Moist places in sandy, pine woodlands, post-oak woodlands, disturbed places; 70-500 m; Ala., Ark., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., La., Miss., Mo., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Tenn., Tex. Verbesina helianthoides may be no longer present in Georgia.
From Flora of Indiana (1940) by Charles C. Deam
Infrequent in the southern part of the state. It is generally found on open black and white oak slopes and less frequently on level ground in sandy soil in open woodland and along roadsides.
Hirsute perennial, 5-12 dm, the stem winged, leafy throughout; lvs alternate, lanceolate to narrowly ovate, serrate, 6-15 נ2-6 cm, sessile or broadly short-petiolate; heads few, mostly 1-10, the disk 9-16 mm wide in fl; invol bracts erect but rather loose; receptacle shortly conic; rays 8-15, pistillate or neutral, yellow, 1-3 cm; achenes winged or wingless, often a little spreading, but not reflexed; 2n=34. Prairies and dry woods; O. to Ga., w. to Io., Kans., and Tex. June-Oct. (Phaethusa h.; Pterophyton h.)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
