Awned or bristly meadow beauty

Caudices usually not developed; roots often long and rhizomelike, lignescent, tuberiferous. Stems unbranched to several-branched, 40–70 cm, faces subequal, angles weakly ridged, sometimes narrowly winged, internodes glabrous, nodes sparsely hirsute to villous, hairs yellowish, eglandular. Leaves sessile to subsessile; blade usually lanceolate, 2–3 cm × 3–9 mm, margins shallowly serrate to barely crenulate, apex sometimes minutely apiculate, surfaces glabrous or sparsely long-strigose to ascending-villous. Inflorescences diffuse, not obscured by bracts. Flowers: hypanthium ovoid, about as long as the constricted neck, 7–10 mm, hispid-hirsute at neck, rim, and calyx lobes, hairs yellowish, eglandular; calyx lobes triangular, apices acuminate-aristate; petals spreading, dull lavender, 1–2 cm; anthers curved, 5–6 mm. Seeds ca 0.7 mm, surfaces with irregular, concentric ridges, with few isolated domes or papillae. 2n = 22.

Flowering Jun–Aug(–Sep). Carolina bays, depression meadows, wetland margins, borrow pits, lime sinkponds, cypress flats and swamps, oak-pine-cypress, gum with slash and longleaf pines, sandy peat and clay; 0–50 m; Ala., Del., Ga., Md., N.J., N.C., S.C., Va.