[++] Leaves veiny, not 3-ribbed, but sometimes obscurely triple-nerved.
[=] 1. Heads commonly large; leaves thickish, very smooth, entire, elongated.
13. S. sempérvirens, L. Smooth and stout (1–8° high); leaves lanceolate, slightly clasping, or the lower ones lanceolate-oblong, obscurely triple-nerved; racemes short, in an open or contracted panicle.—Salt marshes, or rocks on the shore, Maine to Va.—Heads showy; the golden rays 7–10. Varies, in less brackish swamps, with thinner elongated linear-lanceolate leaves, tapering to each end, and more erect racemes in a narrower panicle.
[=] 2. Heads small, in a narrow virgate or thyrsoid panicle; scales thin, acute; leaves nearly entire.
14. S. strícta, Ait. Very smooth throughout; stem strict and simple, wand-like (2–4° high), slender, beset with small and entire appressed lanceolate-oblong thickish leaves, gradually reduced upward to mere bracts, the lowest oblong-spatulate; heads crowded in a very narrow compound spicate raceme; rays 5–7. (S. virgata, Michx.)—Damp pine barrens, N. J. and southward.
15. S. pubérula, Nutt. Stem (1–3° high, simple or branched) and panicle minutely hoary; stem-leaves lanceolate, acute, tapering to the base, smoothish; the lower wedge-lanceolate and sparingly toothed, heads very numerous and crowded in compact short racemes forming a prolonged and dense narrow or pyramidal panicle; scales linear-awl-shaped, appressed; rays about 10.—Sandy soil, Maine to Va. and southward, mostly near the coast.
[=] 3. Heads middle-sized, in a thyrsoid panicle; involucral scales rather firm, obtuse; leaves entire or little serrate, smooth.
16. S. uliginòsa, Nutt. Smooth nearly throughout; stem simple, strict (2–3° high); leaves lanceolate, pointed, the lower tapering into winged petioles, partly sheathing at the base, sparsely serrulate or entire; racemes much crowded and appressed in a dense wand-like panicle; scales linear-oblong; rays 5–6, small. (S. stricta, Ait.)—Peat-bogs, Maine to Penn., Minn., and northward. Root-leaves 6–10´ long. Flowers earlier than most species, beginning in July.
17. S. speciòsa, Nutt. Stem stout (3–6° high), smooth; leaves thickish, smooth with rough margins, oval or ovate, slightly serrate, the uppermost oblong-lanceolate, the lower contracted into a margined petiole; heads somewhat crowded in numerous erect racemes, forming an ample pyramidal or thyrsiform panicle; peduncles and pedicels rough-hairy; scales of the cylindrical involucre oblong; rays about 5, large.—Var. angustàta, Torr. & Gray, is a dwarf form, with the racemes short and clustered, forming a dense interrupted or compound spike.—Copses, Maine to Minn., and southward.—A very handsome species; the lower leaves 4–6´ long and 2–4´ wide in the larger forms.
[=] 4. Heads very small in slender spreading secund clusters forming a mostly short and broad panicle; leaves entire or nearly so.