8b. ssp. ozarkana(Wherry) Wherry

P. pilosa var. ozarkana Wherry

Plants sometimes with 1 or a few vegetative stems. Stems with 6–12 nodes, sometimes with short axillary branches at many of the nodes, sparsely to densely pubescent with fine, gland-tipped hairs throughout (except occasionally near the base). Leaves opposite, narrowly elliptic toward the stem base, grading to lanceolate or ovate toward the stem tip, the bases of the upper leaves often shallowly cordate, the lowermost hairy to nearly glabrous, the uppermost moderately to densely pubescent with sometimes gland-tipped hairs, the largest leaves 3.5–7.5 cm long and 8–20 mm wide. Leaves subtending flower clusters linear-lanceolate to lanceolate or occasionally ovate, the bases sometimes cordate. Inflorescences pubescent with fine, gland-tipped hairs. Calyces 8–14 mm long, glandular-hairy. Corollas with the tube pubescent with at least some of the hairs gland-tipped, rarely glabrous or nearly so, the lobes 8–13 mm long and 4–11 mm wide. April–May.

Scattered to common in the southern half of the state (Oklahoma east to Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana). Glades, savannas, upland prairies, bottomland forests, mesic to dry upland forests, bases, ledges, and tops of bluffs, margins of sinkhole ponds, banks of streams and rivers, and fens; also pastures, old fields, ditches, railroads, and roadsides.