Easily distinguished from the other Sunflowers by its narrow, linear leaves and yellow heads with purplish disks. Perennial by slender root-stocks; stem rough, 2 to 7 feet high; slender and branched above, usually somewhat hairy below. Leaves firm and tough, slightly rough, linear, entire and sessile, 2 to 7 inches long, one-sixth to one-third of an inch wide, the margins becoming revolute with age or in drying. Lower leaves opposite, the upper ones alternate. Heads with twelve to twenty yellow ray flowers and a purplish disk, the entire head 2 to 3 inches broad. Bracts of the involucres linear-lanceolate and pubescent, their tips scarcely spreading. Chaff of the receptacle entire or three-toothed. Pappus usually two short awns.

In swamps mainly near the coast, Long Island to Florida, Kentucky and Texas. Flowering from August to October.

Memoir 15 N. Y. State Museum

Plate 249

A. Narrow-Leaved Or Swamp Sunflower - Helianthus augustifolius