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Helenium autumnale

common sneezeweed

Habit Plants perennial, 2–13 dm.
Stems

often with 4+ branches, glabrous or puberulent.

Leaves

basal usually withered by flowering;

cauline lanceolate-elliptic or oblanceolate, 3–13 cm, bases attenuate or truncate, decurrent;

margins generally entire but with some denticulate or serrate-dentate;

tips acute;

surfaces glabrous or minutely glandular.

Involucres

8–23 mm in diameter.

Ray florets

8–21;

corollas 10–23 mm, yellow.

Disc florets

200–400+;

corollas 2.5–5 mm, yellow, sometimes brownish distally.

Phyllaries

5–12 mm, linear;

surfaces puberulent.

Fruits

1–2 mm, brown, sparsely hairy, pappi of 5–7 aristate scales, 0.5–1.5 mm.

Heads

5–70+, radiate;

peduncles moderately to densely hairy.

2n

=32, 34, 36.

Helenium autumnale

Distribution
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Riverbanks, lake shores, wet meadows, swamps, marshes. Flowering Jul–Oct. 0–1500 m. Casc, Col, CR, ECas, Sisk, WV. CA, ID, NV, WA; throughout most of North America. Native.

This species was formerly divided into variety grandiflorum and variety montanum, but the morphological differences between varieties are too minor and intergrading to merit taxonomic recognition.

Source Flora of Oregon, volume 2, page 278
Kenton Chambers
Sibling taxa
H. bigelovii, H. bolanderi, H. puberulum
Synonyms Helenium autumnale var. autumnale, Helenium autumnale var. grandiflorum, Helenium autumnale var. montanum
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