Why Is Helenium Called Sneezeweed

As the species name implies, Sneezeweed flowers in late summer or fall. The common name is based on the former use of its dried leaves in making snuff, inhaled to cause sneezing that would supposedly rid the body of evil spirits.

Does sneezeweed make you sneeze?

“With its large showy flowers, insects pollinate common sneezeweed, not wind,” Trull writes. “Therefore, it does not have small pollen grains, like ragweed does, which cause sneezing and other hay fever symptoms.

Is sneezeweed a native plant?

Helenium autumnale, commonly called sneezeweed, is an erect, clump-forming, Missouri native perennial which occurs in moist soils along streams, ponds or ditches and in spring-fed meadows, prairie and wet open ground throughout most of the State (Steyermark).