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.
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.