 It can be distinguished from its relative, "A. flava" by its tendency to have entire, simple leaves.The Appalachian oak-leech was first formally described in 1820 by French botanist Constantine Samuel Rafinesque as "Gerardia levigata" and renamed, by the same author, as "Aureolaria levigata" in 1837.The scientific name is frequently "corrected" as Aureolaria laevigata, though according to the Germplasm Resources Information Network, "Rafinesque consistently spelled this ""levigata"" and there is no basis for correcting his spelling".