About Helenium amphibolum A.Gray
Scientific name: Helenium amphibolum A.Gray
Helenium elegans is a North American plant in the sunflower family, commonly called pretty sneezeweed. It is a perennial native to the south-central United States and northeastern Mexico. This species is an annual herb that can grow up to 120 cm (4 feet) tall. Its stems have wings, which are flaps of tissue that run down the sides of the stems. A single plant can produce 200 or more small flower heads arranged in branching arrays. Each flower head is almost perfectly spherical, and is nearly covered by up to 700 disc florets. Each disc floret is yellow near its base and brown toward its tip. The flower heads also have 1 to 17 ray florets that can be either yellow or brown. Helenium elegans grows along streambanks and in ditches.
There are two recognized varieties: Helenium elegans var. amphibolum (A.Gray) Bierner, found in Texas, Coahuila, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí, and Tamaulipas; and Helenium elegans var. elegans, found in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.
