Sneezeweed
Here’s a member of the sunflower family that looks something like the coreopsis I featured recently, but even more like the Indian blanket you’ve seen so much of here this spring. You’re looking at Helenium quadridentatum, which has the vernacular name sneezeweed, though I can’t say that it makes me sneeze more than any other wildflowers. I also can’t say that the species name quadridentatum matches reality: I count three teeth at the end of each ray, not four.
Date: June 7. Place: Great Hills Park.
© 2013 Steven Schwartzman
What a beautiful center. It deserves the focus you’ve given it.
I did a little snooping, and discovered some evidence that the sneezing this plant occasions comes after it’s dried and ground into powder. Apparently it’s been used to induce sneezing as a folk remedy for colds and allergies, and, from the sidebar of the page, we have this: “Powdered disk flowers and leaves of this species have in the past been dried and used as snuff, thus giving rise to the common name of sneezeweed.”
It does seem as though the name should be tridentatum. Wouldn’t it be fun if the current name were just a result of a transcription error somewhere along the line?
shoreacres
July 2, 2013 at 6:34 AM
It’s good of you to focus on that appealing globe at the center, which easily distinguishes this genus from the relatives I mentioned.
The sources on the page that you linked to note that the name sneezeweed was applied especially to the species Helenium autumnale, which I first photographed in the fall of 2011:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/happy-new/
On the other hand, I can’t imagine any dried, powdered flower that wouldn’t make me sneeze. I wonder if the flowers of Helenium really have a chemical agent that makes them more sternutative than any others.
As for the supposed four teeth, I’ve speculated that botanists might have observed four teeth on some structure in this species other than its ray tips, but I haven’t yet tracked it down (if it even exists).
Steve Schwartzman
July 2, 2013 at 7:08 AM
Super photo Steve, I love the softness/depth of field you chose for this photo!
dhphotosite
July 2, 2013 at 1:55 PM
Thanks for pointing that out, fellow photographer. The place was in shade, and because I didn’t want to use flash (which would have produced too much garishness), I focused simultaneously on the top of the globe and the nearest of the tips of the yellow rays. I knew that the rays in the rear would go out of focus, but that didn’t seem to be a negative in a portrait whose overall feel would be of softness.
Steve Schwartzman
July 2, 2013 at 2:03 PM
A beautiful photo of a delightful flower, steve, one of your best. Naming is really weird isn’t it! I think the person who named this plant must have just sneezed, and with his eyes tearing up from the sneeze saw four dents, not three! And he needed spectacles as well….LOL!
janina
July 2, 2013 at 10:20 PM
I like your imaginative explanations, Janina. They do a good job of accounting for everything.
Steve Schwartzman
July 2, 2013 at 10:23 PM
Very nice. A short depth of field absolutely suits this picture, and flower.
bentehaarstad
July 3, 2013 at 5:33 AM
I appreciate your appreciating that, Bente.
Steve Schwartzman
July 3, 2013 at 6:04 AM
If a critter with four teeth bit into a flower, it might look just like this. Hence the ‘quadridentatum ” ?
Judy
July 3, 2013 at 8:02 AM
That’s another creative explanation. Any idea what the critter with four teeth might be?
Steve Schwartzman
July 3, 2013 at 8:26 AM
Steve, your photographs have just gotten better and better. I’ve loved seeing the progression through the years. Keep it up!
Mind Margins/Run Nature
July 3, 2013 at 10:03 AM
Thanks so much, Angela. Now I’d like to turn the “better and better” in your direction.
Steve Schwartzman
July 3, 2013 at 11:46 AM
Thanks, Steve!
Mind Margins/Run Nature
July 3, 2013 at 4:58 PM