Helenium autumnale – Dogtooth Daisy

Also known as Helen’s Flower and Sneezeweed. The latter name does not refer to the plant causing hay fever – like all plants with showy, pollinator-attracting flowers it has heavy pollen that’s designed to stick to the bees that pollinate it, not be blown up into the air where you can breathe it in and have an allergic reaction. Instead, the flowers and leaves used to be pulverized into a snuff that induced sneezing as a remedy for headaches and other ailments. This straight species can get quite tall and benefits from an early- to mid-summer topping. It’s a much longer lived plant than the numerous cultivars that have been derived from it, though it also can be an aggressive self-sower.