''Helenium bigelovii'' is a North American

perennial plant A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

in the sunflower family, commonly known as Bigelow's sneezeweed.Sierra Nevada Wildflowers, Karen Wiese, 2nd Ed., 2013, p. 116 It grows in moist areas such as meadows, marshes, or streamsides. It is found at moderate and higher elevations (3000-10,000 ft) in the foothills and mountains of

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

: Cascades,

Coast Ranges The Pacific Coast Ranges (officially gazetted as the Pacific Mountain System in the United States) are the series of mountain ranges that stretch along the West Coast of North America from Alaska south to Northern and Central Mexico. Although the ...

Klamath Mountains The Klamath Mountains are a rugged and lightly populated mountain range in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon in the western United States. As a mountain system within both the greater Pacific Coast Ranges and the California Coast R ...

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

, etc. Cultivars of the species are used in gardening as ornamentals. ''Helenium bigelovii'' is a perennial herb sometimes as much as tall. One plant can produce as many as 20

flower heads A pseudanthium (Greek for "false flower"; ) is an inflorescence that resembles a flower. The word is sometimes used for other structures that are neither a true flower nor a true inflorescence. Examples of pseudanthia include flower heads, compos ...

, either one per branch or in branching arrays. Each head has 14-20 yellow

ray florets The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

(bending backwards and with teeth at the tips) surrounding sometimes as many as 800

disc floret The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

s (yellow at first, turning brown as they get older).Norman F. Weeden, A Sierra Nevada Flora, 4th Ed., Wilderness Press, 1996. The species is named for J.M. Bigelow, a plant collector on the

United States and Mexican Boundary Survey The United States and Mexican Boundary Survey (1848–1855) determined the border between the United States and Mexico as defined in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which had ended the Mexican–American War. The results of the survey were publis ...

in the 1850s.

References

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentUnited States Department of Agriculture Plants ProfileCalPhotos photos gallery, University of California, ''Helenium bigelovii''
Flora of Oregon Plants described in 1857 Flora of California Bigelovii Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Asteroideae-stub