COMPOSITE FAMILY 



COMPOSITAE 



PURPLE-HEAD SNEEZEWEED 



Helenium nudiflorum Nutt. 



This southern plant is uncommon in northern Illinois but very 

 common below Marion county. It is native from Missouri and 

 Illinois to Texas, east to North Carolina and Florida. Often 



cultivated, in some places 

 in the east it has escaped 

 from gardens and become 

 established locally. 



The rather slender- 

 stem of this perennial 

 grows 1-3 feet high and 

 branches near the top. It 

 is more or less covered, at 

 least near the top, with 

 very short hairs, and i^ 

 narrowly winged by the 

 bases of the leaves. The 

 lower leaves are more or 

 less toothed and tapering 

 into margined petioles, 

 but the upper are sessile 

 and often entire. 



The Purple-head 

 Sneezeweed blooms from 

 June to October. The 10- 

 15 sterile ray flowers are 

 drooping and either wholly yellow, wholly brown or yellow with a 

 brown base. They are deeply notched or even lobed. Occasionally 

 they are lacking. The disk flowers are brown or purple and per- 

 fect. The oblong receptacle is not chaffy. The akenes arc hairy 

 and the pappus consists of about 5 scales with awnlike points. 

 With the Common Sneezeweed, page 375, this species often 

 forms hybrids whose characteristics are apt to be intermediate. 



The Five-leaved Sneezeweed, Helenium tenidfolium Nutt., is a 

 smooth annual, easily recognized by its many very narrow leaves 

 which do not extend down the stem. It grows 1-2 teet tall on prairies 

 and along roadsides trom Virginia to Kansas and Florida to Texas. 

 The fertile rays are yellow, drooping and fewer than in the Purple- 

 head Sneezeweed. 



374 



