Helenium elegans

Annuals, 20-120 cm. Stems usually 1, branched distally, moderately to strongly winged, glabrous or sparsely to moderately hairy. Leaves glabrous or sparsely hairy (basal withered by flowering); proximal and mid blades lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, entire, serrate, or irregularly toothed or lobed; distal blades lanceolate to linear, entire. Heads 20-200+ per plant, in paniculiform arrays. Peduncles 2-14 cm, moderately to densely hairy. Involucres globoid, 5-11 × 5-12(-13) mm. Phyllaries (connate proximally) moderately to densely hairy. Ray florets 10-17, pistillate, fertile; corollas yellow throughout or red-brown to red proximally and yellow distally, 5.5-15(-19) × 2.2-5.5(-8.7) mm. Disc florets 150-700+; corollas yellow proximally, yellow to brown to usually reddish brown distally, 1.5-2.3(-2.5) mm, lobes 5. Cypselae 0.6-1 mm, moderately hairy; pappi of 6-7 entire, non-aristate scales 0.05-0.3(-0.4) mm.