SCIENTIFIC NAME: Helenium autumnale
COMMON NAMES: Sneezeweed, Common Sneezeweed, Sneezewort, Swamp Sunflower, Fall Sneezeweed, Autumn Sneezeweed, Bitterweed, Dogtooth-daisy, Helen's Flower
BLOOM TIME: Aug, Sep, Oct
INSECT/ANIMAL INTERACTIONS:
- Most common visitors are long-tongued bees, including honeybees, bumblebees, long-horned bees, cuckoo bees, and leaf-cutting bees.
- Other visitors include wasps, Syrphid flies, butterflies, & beetles.
- These insects suck nectar, although some bees also collect pollen & some beetles feed on the pollen.
- Aphids suck plant juices while the Rigid Sunflower Borer Moth caterpillars bore through stems
- & feed on the pith.
- Mammalian herbivores usually don't feed on this plant because its foliage is toxic & bitter.
- There have been reports of severe poisoning for livestock that have consumed this plant, producing such symptoms as congestion of kidneys & liver, lungs abscesses, & irritation of the digestive tract.