Small plant, 1 to 3 feet tall. Flowerheads in small clusters, deep blue to violet. Each flowerhead short cylindrical with a few dozen minute flowers having long hair-like petals. Leaves opposite each other, triangular, rounded, with strongly-marked veins and large teeth. Lower ones long-stalked. Blooms in late summer to early fall.

Beautiful native of woods and thickets. Rare in Wildwood, but found at the top of the east slope, near the cell phone tower.

Bonesets and snakeroots (Ageratina and Eupatorium spp.) also have leaves in pairs, but flowers are white. Joe-Pye weeds (also Eupatorium spp.) have pink to purple flowers, but leaves in whorls of three or more,