Everglades sneezeweed, Helenium pinnatifidum

Everglades sneezeweed has been there twice to welcome us to the park. Shortly after the entrance these grow in the glade along the road. Patches like that with knee high stems and up to eight hundred flowers each are quite the show. Of course eight hundred sneezeweed flowers are just what you see here, all clustered in the one head per stem. It's not hard to see why there's a lot of talk on southern gardening sites about this sneezeweed. But they are an obligate wetland plant that would take a very special sort of garden. Everglades seems like a great name for the species, but they are more often called southeastern. They grow in wet soil in AL, FL, GA, NC and SC. Everglades National Park, Miami-Dade Co FL, 1/26/13. Aster family, Asteraceae.