[1] When distinguished from Phryma oblongifolia and Phryma nana, it is native to eastern North America.

The plant stands about 0.3 to 1.0 meters tall, and the inflorescences bear a number of small (4 mm) tube-shaped white to pink flowers.

[1] Phryma leptostachya was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.

[4] However, these species were generally not accepted, and populations in Asia and North America were usually treated as the single species Phryma leptostachya, being distinguished only at the rank of subspecies and variety.

In 2017, treating all three as full species was supported by morphological and earlier molecular phylogenetic evidence,[5] and all three are accepted by Plants of the World Online, as of April 2022[update],[6] although other sources may continue to use a single species with only intraspecific divisions.