COMPOSITAE 



COMPOSITE FAMILY 



COMMON SNEEZEWEED. SWAMP SUNFLOWER 



Helenium aiiUimnale L. 



The flower heads of this plant are powdered and used in 

 medicine to induce sneezing, and pollen inhaled from the plant 

 in the field will do the same. Stems, leaves and especially 

 flowers are poisonous and 

 bitter. Stock may eat much 

 of the plant and die; milk 

 from cows which have eaten 

 only a little is acrid. 



The Common Sneezeweed, 

 Swamp or False Sunflower, is 

 very common in swamps and 

 wet meadows from Quebec to 

 Manitoba and Oregon, south 

 to Florida and Arizona. It is 

 perennial and the rather 

 stout stem, 2-6 feet tall, is 

 nearly smooth but winged by 

 the bases of the alternate 

 leaves which run down on it. 

 The bright green leaves are 

 rather firm, 2-5 inches long, 

 oblong, lanceolate or ovate- 

 lanceolate, acute or acumi- 

 nate at the apex and narrow- 

 ed to the sessile base, toothed 

 or entire, pinnately few 

 veined and smooth to slightly 

 hairy. 



The heads, blooming from 

 August to October, are numerous, often 2 inches broad, and 

 borne on long peduncles covered with short hairs. The involucre 

 is rather flattish and its bracts are densely covered with short 

 whitish hairs. The 10-18 pistillate ray flowers are drooping, 

 bright yellow, of equal length or longer than the globose disk, 

 and 3-cleft at the end. The disk flowers are also yellow and 

 perfect, ^oth produce akenes, which are hairy on the angles and 

 have a pappus of ^-^ awned and chaff"y ovate scales. 



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