Sneezeweed is an attractive composite flower with distinctively notched
rays that make it easy to identify. (A similar species, Purple-Headed
Sneezeweed, Helenium flexuosum, has been introduced in a few
locations; it is easy to distinguish by the dark brownish button in the
center.) The plant likes damp areas; this one was growing in Schenley
Park, in a section of former lawn that is being allowed to grow into a
meadow for better water retention. It was blooming in the middle of
September.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
HELÈNIUM L. SNEEZEWEED. Heads many-flowered, radiate; rays several,
wedge-shaped, 3-6-cleft, fertile, rarely sterile. Involucre small,
reflexed; the bracts linear or awl-shaped. Receptacle globose or
ellipsoid. Achenes top-shaped, ribbed; pappus of 6-8 thin 1-nerved chaffy
scales, the nerve usually extended into a bristle or point. — Erect
branching herbs with alternate leaves, often sprinkled with bitter
aromatic resinous globules; heads yellow, rarely purple, terminal, single
or corymbed. (The Greek name of some plant, said to be named after
Helenus, son of Priam.)
Leaves broad, decurrent on the angled stem.
H. autumnàle L. Perennial, nearly smooth, 0.2-2 m. high; leaves
mostly toothed, lanceolate to ovate-oblong; heads larger (2-4 cm. broad);
disk yellow; rays fertile, yellow. — Alluvial river-banks and wet ground,
w. Que. and w. Mass. to Man., southw. and westw. Aug.-Oct.
