Helenium L.

	Helenium autumnale Photo: © G.D. Carr

sneezeweed, Helen's flower

Helenium autumnale L.; and the many cultivars based on it

North America.

Terete to winged stems bearing alternate, simple, usually serrate, ovate to linear-lanceolate, decurrent leaves with small black dots; flowers (florets) in radiate heads mostly 2.5-5 cm across in branched leafy clusters; head subtended by involucre of reflexed to spreading phyllaries in 2 subequal series; receptacle naked, convex to globose; ray florets 10-20, horizontal to reflexed, with wedge shaped, prominently 3-toothed limbs; central disc high, hemispherical to subglobose; pappus of 5-10 scarious, awn-tipped, often fringed scales.

Heads in some cultivars to 9 cm across; disc florets mostly yellow and brown, also red-brown or red-purple; ray florets mostly yellow, also orange or red-brown.

Kenya