03 October 2022

Sneezeweed (Helenium)


Photo credit to Marcie O'Connor from the September journal entry at the outstanding Prairie Haven blog.
Helenium is a genus of annuals and herbaceous perennial plants in the family Asteraceae, native to the Americas. They bear yellow or orange daisy-like composite flowers. A number of these species (particularly Helenium autumnale) have the common name sneezeweed, based on the former use of their dried leaves in making snuff... The genus is named for Helen of Troy... Numerous cultivars have been developed for garden use - mainly from H. autumnale and H. bigelovii. They are useful for late summer and fall bloom, usually in less formal compositions. They are appropriate for native gardens in areas where they are indigenous, and they look wonderfully in bouquets.
I'll add her photo of a Common Buckeye:


And this chart of their annual Monarch counts - 


Prairie Haven is located in western Wisconsin close enough to the Mississippi River to sample one of the major flyways for migrating Monarchs.  Their experience of seeing fewer Monarchs this summer echoes our much more limited experience here in Madison (and note the chart is on a log scale).

2 comments:

  1. I know that you love butterflies, dear friend. We do not have this plant here, but we have something called Rabbit Brush. All the insects love it. The whole country is yellow with it. Chrysothamnus used to be the latin genus, but according to recent authors, it has a new moniker.
    Anyway, we still see a few Monarch butterflies passing through at this time of year. I saw one yesterday.

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    1. More on Rabbit Brush -

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbitbrush

      and lots of photos -

      https://www.google.com/search?q=rabbit+brush&sxsrf=ALiCzsYJGZjrw-ZblBmbq1fxq4gZK53Sqg:1665615716936&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjmko-J5tv6AhXwj4kEHWiVB2sQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1993&bih=1016&dpr=2

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