Summary ⁵

Helenium flexuosum is a North American plant species in the daisy family known by the common name purple sneezeweed. It is widespread across much of eastern and central United States and Canada, from Nova Scotia west to Ontario, Minnesota, and Kansas, south to Florida, Louisiana, and eastern Texas.

Description ⁶

Perennials, 30–100 cm. Stems usually 1, usually branched distally, strongly winged, glabrous or sparsely hairy proximally, sparsely to moderately hairy distally. Leaves glabrous or sparsely to moderately hairy; basal blades oblanceolate to obovate or spatulate, entire or serrate; proximal and mid blades oblanceolate to lanceolate, entire or toothed; distal blades lanceolate to lance-linear, entire. Heads (1–)5–50(–80+) per plant, in paniculiform arrays. Peduncles 3–10 cm, sparsely to moderately hairy. Involucres globoid to usually ovoid, 8–17 × 9–17 mm. Phyllaries (connate proximally) moderately to densely hairy. Ray florets usually 8–13, neuter, sometimes 0; corollas yellow to reddish brown to red to purple, 10–20 × 5–10 mm. Disc florets 250–500(–700+); corollas yellow proximally and purple distally or purple throughout, 2.3–3.7 mm, lobes 4(–5). Cypselae 1–1.2 mm, moderately hairy; pappi of 5–6 entire, aristate scales 0.6–1(–1.7) mm. 2n = 28.

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Jerry Oldenettel, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/7457894@N04/2666586378
2. (c) Steven J. Baskauf, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/baskauf/13523
3. (c) "<a href=""http://www.knps.org"">Kentucky Native Plant Society</a>. Scanned by <a href=""http://www.omnitekinc.com/"">Omnitek Inc</a>.", some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://plants.usda.gov/java/largeImage?imageID=henu3_001_avd.tif
4. (c) Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://collections.nmnh.si.edu/services/media.php?env=botany&irn=10084762
5. Adapted by Amber Leung from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helenium_flexuosum
6. (c) Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/4943037

More Info

• iNat taxon page
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• BOLD Systems BIN search
• eFloras.org
• Flora of North America (beta)
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• Go Botany
• HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
• IPNI (with links to POWO, WFO, and BHL)
• Maryland Biodiversity Project
• NatureServe Explorer 2.0
• SEINet Symbiota portals
• Tropicos
• USDA PLANTS database
• VASCAN by Canadensys
• World Flora Online

iNat Map