Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Fivenerve Helianthella
Helianthella quinquenervis
Aster family (Asteraceae)

Helianthella quinquenervis, sometimes growing to an eye-catching four feet tall, is common, but scattered, in woodlands from the Aspen belt to the . Its bright yellow flowers are up to four inches in diameter, and its leaves are long and strap-like. are numerous; stem leaves are few. In the south central mountains of Colorado hikers might encounter the very similar but smaller in all regards, Helianthella parryi.

"Helios" is Greek for "sun" and "anthos" for "flower." "Helianthella" is the diminutive of Helianthus and thus means "Little Sunflower" (even though H. quinquenervis is quite tall and its flower very large). The specific epithet is Latin for five- (referring to the leaf veins). Helianthella quinquenervis was first collected in 1843-1844 near the North Fork of the Platte in Wyoming by Charles Geyer. Asa Gray named the plant in 1883.


©2004 Al Schneider

Description

plant to over 4' tall, stout, or hairy. Leaves leathery, large cluster of to over 1' long,; about 4 pairs , to , pointed, prominent ; 5 leaf veins usually quite prominent. Flowerheads usually solitary, long peduncled, nodding to a horizontal position. to almost 1" long, prominently hairy. 1+" long, pale lemon yellow, flowers yellow. a hairy .

Field Marks

Tall sunflower with nodding, large, lemon-yellow flowers and leathery, long, 5- leaves.

© Al Schneider

nerves -- Another name for a vein.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

cauline leaves -- leaves growing on a stem and especially on the upper part.

achene -- a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. For example, a rose hip holds a few achenes.

A herb is a plant whose stems die back to the ground in the winter.

subalpine -- Just below the timberline.

ray flowers -- The outer petals of a sunflower or daisy are ray flowers.

Bracts are modified leaves associated with a flower.

Involucre is the name given to the circle or spiral collection of bracts around a flower-cluster.

disc flowers are those in the center of a sunflower or daisy. Not a ray flower.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

ovate-lanceolate -- Ovate thru lanceolate.

elliptic -- Oval, with no point or a very short point.

basal leaves -- a leaf that grows lowest on the stem of a plant.

petiole -- the stalk of a leaf.

glabrous -- smooth, glossy, having no bristles or hair-like structures. Bald.