Autumn Sneezeweed or Common Sneezeweed - Helenium autumnale
Autumn Sneezeweed or Common Sneezeweed - Helenium autumnale - is a native wildflower that grows to between 2 and 5 feet in height, as alternate, numeorus, narrowly lanceolate (but not linear or linear-filiform) leaves that are mostly toothed, and has yellow ray flowers 13-21 in number, 0.6-1.0 inch long, slightly reflexed, widely spaced, wedge-shaped, with 3 shallow lobes at the tip. The disks are yellow, hemispheric, and 0.3-0.8 inch wide. Flower heads are numerous and are seen September-October. Bitterweed - Helenium amarum - can be confused with this species but it has very thin, almost thread-like leaves that are usually less than 0.1 inch wide, while Autumn Sneezeweed has much wider leaves that are 0.2-1.6 inch wide. It also is a shorter plant, only growing 8-20 inches tall, and has fewer ray petals (5-10 instead of 13-21). Found in moist places throughout the eastern U.S. Also called False Sunflower, Staggerwort, Swamp Sunflower, and Yellow Star. Notwithstanding its common name, this plant doesn't cause sneezing or hay fever during the autumn – its pollen is distributed by insects, rather than the wind. A popular and important food source to many insects in the early fall, this species is visited by long-tongued bees, including honeybees, bumblebees, long-horned bees (Melissodes spp.), cuckoo bees (Coelioxys spp., Triepeolus spp.), leaf-cutting bees (Megachile spp.), Halictid bees, Sphecid wasps, Vespid wasps, Syrphid flies, butterflies, and beetles. Horn and Cathcart, Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley, and the Southern Appalachians www.illinoiswildflowers.info/wetland/plants/sneezeweed.htm 4. Autumn Sneezeweed or Common Sneezeweed - Helenium autumnale
Autumn Sneezeweed or Common Sneezeweed - Helenium autumnale
Autumn Sneezeweed or Common Sneezeweed - Helenium autumnale - is a native wildflower that grows to between 2 and 5 feet in height, as alternate, numeorus, narrowly lanceolate (but not linear or linear-filiform) leaves that are mostly toothed, and has yellow ray flowers 13-21 in number, 0.6-1.0 inch long, slightly reflexed, widely spaced, wedge-shaped, with 3 shallow lobes at the tip. The disks are yellow, hemispheric, and 0.3-0.8 inch wide. Flower heads are numerous and are seen September-October. Bitterweed - Helenium amarum - can be confused with this species but it has very thin, almost thread-like leaves that are usually less than 0.1 inch wide, while Autumn Sneezeweed has much wider leaves that are 0.2-1.6 inch wide. It also is a shorter plant, only growing 8-20 inches tall, and has fewer ray petals (5-10 instead of 13-21). Found in moist places throughout the eastern U.S. Also called False Sunflower, Staggerwort, Swamp Sunflower, and Yellow Star. Notwithstanding its common name, this plant doesn't cause sneezing or hay fever during the autumn – its pollen is distributed by insects, rather than the wind. A popular and important food source to many insects in the early fall, this species is visited by long-tongued bees, including honeybees, bumblebees, long-horned bees (Melissodes spp.), cuckoo bees (Coelioxys spp., Triepeolus spp.), leaf-cutting bees (Megachile spp.), Halictid bees, Sphecid wasps, Vespid wasps, Syrphid flies, butterflies, and beetles. Horn and Cathcart, Wildflowers of Tennessee, the Ohio Valley, and the Southern Appalachians www.illinoiswildflowers.info/wetland/plants/sneezeweed.htm 4. Autumn Sneezeweed or Common Sneezeweed - Helenium autumnale