WESTERN SNEEZEWEED AS A POISONOUS PLANT. 5 
and somestimes reaches the Arctic alpine zone. Its best habitat is 
on sunny slopes of the aspen-spruce belt in moist well-drained soil. 
It thrives in the higher mountain parks of Colorado and Utah and in 
the upper Kern Kiver watershed in the southern Sierra Nevadas of 
California. Helenium hoopesii is also found in the Wind River and 
Teton Mountains, Wyo.; the Caribou Mountains, Idaho; in the Stein 
Mountains, Oreg.; the Ruby Mountains, Nev. ; and in the Warner 
Mountains, Calif. In the Sierra Nevadas it has been found north from 
the Kern River to Clarks Fork, north of Sonora pass on both sides of 
the range, and also in Washoe County, Nev. In the higher mountains 
of Arizona and New Mexico it is well distributed. In the Black 
Mountains and the Mogollon Mountains of New Mexico it is abundant 
along the streams in the higher mountain canyons. In the Sacra- 
mento Mountains, N. Mex., it occurs in the bottoms of many of the 
Fig. 2. — Distribution of Helenium hoopesii in the United States. 
higher canyons that are destitute of streams. The White and the 
Mogollon Mountains of New Mexico and the San Francisco Peaks of 
Arizona have high mountain parks similar to those of the Rocky 
Mountains of Colorado and the Wasatch, and in these parks sneeze- 
weed is abundant. 
In the Wasatch Mountains the blossoming period is from the middle 
of June to the middle or last of August. In many overgrazed areas 
it has become the predominant plant. Figure 4 shows how thickly 
it grows in some localities. 
From the color of the flowers it is sometimes called "yellowweed," 
and some stockmen called it " sunflower," but in Utah it is most 
commonly known as "sneezeweed." The Navajos have a name 
meaning owl's claws. Figure 2 shows the distribution of the plant 
in the United States. 
