Pretty Sneezeweed

Annuals, 20–120 cm. Stems usually 1, branched distally, moderately to strongly winged, glabrous or sparsely to moderately hairy. Leaves glabrous or sparsely hairy (basal withered by flowering); proximal and mid blades lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, entire, serrate, or irregularly toothed or lobed; distal blades lanceolate to linear, entire. Heads 20–200+ per plant, in paniculiform arrays. Peduncles 2–14 cm, moderately to densely hairy. Involucres globoid, 5–11 × 5–12(–13) mm. Phyllaries (connate proximally) moderately to densely hairy. Ray florets 10–17, pistillate, fertile; corollas yellow throughout or red-brown to red proximally and yellow distally, 5.5–15(–19) × 2.2–5.5(–8.7) mm. Disc florets 150–700+; corollas yellow proximally, yellow to brown to usually reddish brown distally, 1.5–2.3(–2.5) mm, lobes 5. Cypselae 0.6–1 mm, moderately hairy; pappi of 6–7 entire, non-aristate scales 0.05–0.3(–0.4) mm.

Helenium elegans DC. Prodr. 5: 667. 1836
Helenium microcephalum bicolor T. & G. Fl. N. Am. 2: 385. 1842. Heleniastrum elegans Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 342. 1891.
A tall annual or biennial; stem 3-10 dm. high, branched above, glabrous, winged; lower leaves 7-10 cm. long, glabrous, oblanceolate, more or less dentate; upper leaves narrowly lanceolate or almost linear, acute, decurrent; heads corymbose; peduncles 3-5 cm. long; involucral bracts linear-subulu 2-3 mm. long; receptacle depressed-hemispheric; rayflowers pistillate; ligules yelloi ] partly brown at the base, cuneate, 5-7 mm. long, 3-toothed; disk brown or purpl : ' ; 8 mm. broad; corollas 2 mm. long; tube a minute ring; throat deeply campanulate; achlong, hispidulous on the angles; squamellae rounded, minute.
Type locality: Near Be [now Texas).
Distribution: Louisiana, • rtheastern Mexico.

Helenium elegans is a North American perennial plant in the sunflower family, commonly known as pretty sneezeweed. It is native to the south-central United States and to northeastern Mexico.

Helenium elegans is an annual herb up to 120 cm (4 feet) tall. Stems have wings, meaning that they have flaps of tissue running down the sides. One plant can produce 200 or more small flower heads, in branching arrays. The head is very nearly spherical, nearly covered with as many as 700 disc florets, each floret yellow near the base but brown towards the tip. There are also 1-17 yellow or brown ray florets. The species grows along streambanks and in ditches.

Varieties Helenium elegans var. amphibolum (A.Gray) Bierner - Texas, Coahuila, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas Helenium elegans var. elegans - Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana