Helenium elegans is a North American perennial plant in the sunflower family, commonly known as pretty sneezeweed.[2] It is native to the south-central United States and to northeastern Mexico.[3][4]

Helenium elegans
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Helenium
Species:
H. elegans
Binomial name
Helenium elegans
DC. 1836
Synonyms[1]
  • Heleniastrum amphibolum (A.Gray) Kuntze, syn of var. amphibolum
  • Helenium amphibolum A.Gray, syn of var. amphibolum

Helenium elegans is an annual herb up to 120 cm (4 feet) tall. Stems have wings, meaning that they have flaps of tissue running down the sides. One plant can produce 200 or more small flower heads, in branching arrays. The head is very nearly spherical, nearly covered with as many as 700 disc florets, each floret yellow near the base but brown towards the tip. There are also 1-17 yellow or brown ray florets. The species grows along streambanks and in ditches.[2]

Varieties[1][2]

References

edit
  1. ^ a b The Plant List, Helenium elegans DC.
  2. ^ a b c Flora of North America, Helenium elegans de Candolle 1836. Pretty sneezeweed
  3. ^ Biota of North America Program 2014 county distribution map
  4. ^ Turner, B. L. 2013. The comps of Mexico. A systematic account of the family Asteraceae (chapter 11: tribe Helenieae). Phytologia Memoirs 16: 1–100