This native perennial grows in clumps, up to 5 feet tall. The lance-shaped leaves, up to 6 inches long, are alternate on erect stems (A). Numerous blue-purple flower heads form a loose cluster near the top of the plant (B). Identified by its distinctive blue-purple flower heads. Another ironweed (Vernonia fasciculata), which was identified on the floodplain in Fontenelle Forest in the past, looks very similar. But it has dark brown pits on the undersides of its leaves. Vernonia baldwinii lacks those pits.
Grows on floodplains and in upland prairies and woodlands, flowering in July and August. In Fontenelle Forest, locally common. One population was found on Hawthorn Trail near its highest elevation; another off Cottonwood Trail south of its intersection with Stream Trail. At Neale Woods, common on Koley and Jonas Prairies.
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