This is concentrated in more northern and midwestern regions, in contrast to typical elliptica. In Ky. most plants of S. elliptica are clearly var. hirsuta, but some colls. need checking. To earlier authors, the only obvious difference in var. hirsuta has been the presence of glandular hairs on internodes below the inflorescence (versus only short ascending non-glandular hairs). That same character is important for diagnosis of several other related species (W). Short & Peter (1835) were also struck by the more robust overall form of their initial specimens. Weakley et al. (2018) distinguished var. hirsuta as follows: calyx with long spreading, pilose-glandular and eglandular hairs 0.3-0.7 mm long (versus ca. 0.3 mm or less), lacking an understory of eglandular hairs ( versus with notable understory of ca. 0.1 mm hairs).