Helenium autumnale
 
Sneezeweed

Middle Stem

White Butte Trails, 14 km East of Regina
26-August-2015

Note the decurrent leaf bases produce wings on the side of the stem.

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Helenium: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus. 
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plants NOT annuals

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plants NOT with a woody caudex

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juice watery; NOT [juice milky]

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plants NOT glandular-hairy

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plants NOT heavily scented

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plants with leafy stems; NOT [plants more or less scapose, cauline leaves none, or few and reduced to bracts]

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leaves alternate; NOT [leaves opposite, at least below]

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leaves lanceolate; NOT [leaves linear], NOT [leaves usually pinnatifid with narrow lobes]

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flower heads more than 6 mm across and usually less than 35 mm across

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involucral bracts in one or more series, all more or less the same; NOT [involucral bracts of 2 distinct, dissimilar series]

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involucral bracts decided reflexed or turned backward when mature

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involucre NOT glandular-glutinous, NOT resinous, NOT sticky and gummy

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receptacle naked; NOT [receptacle chaffy or bristly]

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flower heads with florets both tubular and ray

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all florets (both tubular and ray) yellow

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rays conspicuous; NOT [rays 1-6, inconspicuous]

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ray florets pistillate or neuter; NOT [ligulate flowers perfect]

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rays deflexed; NOT [rays erect or spreading]

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rays distinctly 3-lobed; NOT [rays more or less entire]

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stamens united to form a tube around the pistil

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pappus chaffy, or of firm awns, or a crown, or none: NOT [pappus wholly or partly of hairs, sometimes plumose]