Perennial; stems mostly clustered, 1-5 dm, usually unbranched, minutely puberulent; lvs alternate, the lowest reduced or scale-like, the others lance-linear or wider, 3-8 cm נ3-30 mm; racemes dense, 1.5-4 cm נ5-8 mm, the peduncle 1-3 cm; fls white; wings broadly elliptic, 3-3.5 mm, exceeding the cor; fr suborbicular; seeds hairy, 2-3 mm, the aril nearly or quite as long. Dry or moist woods and prairies, often in calcareous soil; N.B. to Alta., s. to Ga. and Ark. May, June.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.