Flora of North America species comparison

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Helenium virginicum

Virginia sneezeweed
Habit Perennials, 30–130 cm.
Stems

1(–2), branched distally, strongly winged, glabrous or sparsely to moderately hairy proximally, glabrous or sparsely hairy distally.
Leaves

glabrous or sparsely to densely hairy;

basal blades oblanceolate, weakly to strongly lobed;

proximal and mid blades oblanceolate to lanceolate, usually entire, sometimes dentate;

distal blades usually lanceolate, entire.
Peduncles

2–8 cm, sparsely to moderately hairy.
Involucres

globoid, 8–15 × 10–16 mm.
Ray florets

8–13, pistillate, fertile;

corollas yellow, 10–15 × 4–10 mm.
Disc florets

200–400+;

corollas yellow proximally, yellow to yellow-brown distally, 2.5–3.5 mm, lobes 5.
Phyllaries

(connate proximally) sparsely to moderately hairy.
Heads

2–25+ per plant, in paniculiform arrays.
Cypselae

1.8–2.3 mm, moderately hairy;

pappi of 5–6 entire, aristate scales 1.3–2 mm.

Helenium virginicum
Phenology Flowering Jul–Sep.
Habitat Around ponds, lakes, and bogs, swampy meadows
Elevation 300–500 m (1000–1600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
MO; VA
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Of conservation concern.

M. C. Simurda and J. S. Knox (2000) presented ITS sequence data that placed a population of Helenium virginicum from the Ozark highlands of southern Missouri in a monophyletic group with six populations of H. virginicum from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. R. L. Rimer and J. W. Summers (Missouri Department of Conservation, pers. comm.) located 42 H. virginicum populations in six counties in the Ozark highlands of Missouri. G. A. Yatskievych (Missouri Botanical Garden, pers. comm. to editors) has stated, “. . . the existence of this taxon in Missouri is no longer a matter of a single odd population, but probably rather another case of a taxon with two disjunct centers following dissection of a range during the Pleistocene glaciation.”

Helenium virginicum is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 21, p. 431.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Heliantheae > subtribe Gaillardiinae > Helenium
Sibling taxa
H. amarum, H. arizonicum, H. autumnale, H. bigelovii, H. bolanderi, H. brevifolium, H. campestre, H. drummondii, H. elegans, H. flexuosum, H. linifolium, H. microcephalum, H. pinnatifidum, H. puberulum, H. quadridentatum, H. thurberi, H. vernale
Name authority S. F. Blake: Claytonia 3: 13. (1936)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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