Herbs densely to sparsely strigillose, also at least parts of inflorescence glandular puber­ulent or glabrate. Flowers: buds with free tips usually erect, 1–3 mm; floral tube 30–47 mm; sepals 17–30 mm; petals 25–35 mm. 2n = 14.

Flowering May–Jul. Sandy soil of open sites, old alluvium areas in woodlands; of conservation concern; 30–60 m; Ala., Ark.

Subspecies orientalis is known from two disjunct areas: Greene, Pickens, and Sumter counties, Ala­bama, and Calhoun, Nevada, and Ouachita counties, Arkansas. W. Dietrich and W. L. Wagner (1988) deter­mined populations in Arkansas to be self-incompatible while those sampled in Alabama were self-compatible.