Color brownish to grayish with little patterning. Tail fin-like. 
Arkansas Herpetological Atlas 2019
This species is represented by 8,467 records from 50 sources: 8,384 museum (
), 0 literature (
), 0 research (
), and 67 observation (
), with 16 additional Trauth et al. (2004) locality points remaining unsourced (
). It has been museum vouchered for 27 of 75 counties (), with 2 additional counties having other forms of reported occurrence (). Years of collection range from 1875 to present.
This species occurs south of the Arkansas River and is particularly abundant in Ouachita Mountain streams. It descends into the South Central Plains, where it can be found in and along sandy soil springs and spring runs. There are a few questionable historical records from north of the Arkansas River: Mulberry, Crawford County (KU 4601-4604 from 1926); southwest of Russellville, Pope County (AMNH 60759-60762 from 1956 and FLMNH 167887 from 1974); and vicinity of Conway, Faulkner County (ASNHC 5750-5753 from 1965). No Desmognathus have been documented south of Magnolia, Columbia County, since 1972, with neighboring ranges from Texas and Louisiana currently attributed as D. conanti (Boundy and Carr, 2017; Dixon, 2013; Powell et al., 2016). The southern and western boundaries in the South Central Plains are not well established. Two isolated localities plotted by Trauth et al. (2004) near Pine Bluff, Jefferson County, and Warren, Bradley County, remain unsourced.
