Helenium autumnale L.

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Asteraceae

• Scientific Name

  Helenium autumnale L.

• Description

  Species Description - Fibrous-rooted perennial 5–15 dm, glabrous to finely strigose or puberulent; lvs numerous, all or mainly cauline, lance-linear to elliptic or narrowly ovate, narrowed to a sessile or subpetiolar base, decurrent as wings on the stem, not much reduced upwards, 4–15 cm × 5–40 mm, the lower ones deciduous; heads (1–)several or many in a leafy infl, hemispheric or subglobose, the disk yellow, 8–20 mm wide; rays ca 13 to ca 21, pistillate, mostly 1.5–2.5 cm; pappus- scales generally brownish, ovate or lanceolate, tapering to a short awn, to ca 1 mm overall; 2n=32, 34, 36. Moist low ground; Que. to Fla., w. to B.C. and Ariz. Aug.–Oct. The var. autumnale, with elliptic to oblong or lanceolate, generally toothed lvs 3–6 times as long as wide, occurs from Conn. to Minn., s. to Fla. and Tex. (H. altissimum; H. latifolium; H. parviflorum) The var. canaliculatum (Lam.) Torr. & A. Gray, a usually smaller, sometimes single-headed plant with narrower, mostly subentire lvs 7–12 times as long as wide, occurs from Que. to N.Y., w. to Wis. Other vars. occur westward.

• Common Names

  commom sneezeweed