Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Showy Goldeneye
Heliomeris multiflora
Aster family (Asteraceae)

This is a relatively easy Asteraceae (Sunflower) to learn: each plant is bushy with many flowers, numerous plants fill , and the blooms last for many weeks. Central flowers start green and change to golden-yellow as the summer progresses. The plant combines with Showy Daisy to put on one of the best and longest lasting flower displays. "Helios" is Greek for "sun" and "meris" for "part of." William Gambel collected the first specimen of this plant for science, probably in the 1840s, and it was named Heliomeris multiflora in 1848 by his mentor, Thomas Nuttall.


©2010 Barry Breckling

Description

Erect, , 1' to mostly 2-4' tall, with slender stems and numerous yellow flowerheads. flowers domelike, golden-yellow surrounded by 10-14 yellow . and overlapping. Olive drab leaves mostly (may be near top), , rough and . Lower leaves short- becoming stalkless above. Stems fine-hairy and highly branched. , hairless, flattened, 4-sided with no .

Field Marks

Shrub-like, abundant in . Yellow sunflower with golden center disk.

© Al Schneider

Like the teeth on a saw, leaves and other surfaces can have toothed edges.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

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

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

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.

pappus -- Small scales, bristles or hairs at the top of the seed in Asteraceae. For example, dandelion parachutes. Plural: pappi.

linear -- Long and very narrow like a blade of grass.

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

In an opposite leaf arrangement the leaves come in pairs with one leaf on each side of a stem.

montane -- inhabiting mountainous country but below timberline.

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

stalk -- The supporting structure of an organ. Examples of stalks are stem, peduncle, petiole, ...

alternate -- leaves alternate along the main stem and are attached singly.

lanceolate -- Lance-shaped. Long, wider in the middle.

meadow -- Large grass and wildflower filled area with few, if any, trees.