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Heliomeris
multiflora.
Synonym:
Viguiera multiflora. (Showy Goldeneye) Asteraceae (Sunflower Family) Foothills, montane, subalpine.
Disturbed areas, openings, meadows. Summer, fall. This bright sunflower is long-lived and abundant in summer and fall mountain meadows, frequently brightening many acres. It is also very common along roadsides. Its long, narrow leaves are almost an olive drab. Flower heads start with a green central disk and tiny green rays, gradually changing to golden disks and golden-yellow rays. "Helios" is Greek for "sun" and "meris" for "part of". William Gambel collected the first specimen of this plant, probably in the 1840s, and it was named Heliomeris multiflora in 1848 by his mentor, Thomas Nuttall. Colorado Flora, the Synthesis, and most other floras accept this name. S. F. Blake renamed the plant Viguiera multiflora in 1918 and that is the name that Intermountain Flora and A Utah Flora accept. Alexandre L. Viguier, 1790-1867, was a physician and botanist in Montpellier, Vermont. |
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Heliomeris
multiflora.
Synonym:
Viguiera multiflora. (Showy Goldeneye) Asteraceae (Sunflower Family) Foothills, montane, subalpine.
Disturbed areas, openings, meadows. Summer, fall. |
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Heliomeris
multiflora.
Synonym:
Viguiera multiflora. (Showy Goldeneye) Asteraceae (Sunflower Family) Foothills, montane, subalpine.
Disturbed areas, openings, meadows. Summer, fall. As you might have noticed on the trail, Heliomeris multiflora's central disk of flowers looks quite green and dark when young and then quite golden-yellow when it matures. The close-up of a maturing flower at top left shows why: stamens emerge from the multitude of tiny central disk tubular flowers and then yellow pollen tips the stamens and gives the maturing flower an increasingly golden-yellow appearance which is added to by the tubular golden disk flowers and the maturing golden ray flowers. In the bottom photographs, the mature disk flowers (with 5-pointed lobes) are quite golden and most of the individual rays of the outer ray flowers have withered and fallen, leaving gold buttons. |
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Heliomeris
multiflora.
Synonym:
Viguiera multiflora. (Showy Goldeneye) Asteraceae (Sunflower Family) Foothills, montane, subalpine.
Disturbed areas, openings, meadows. Summer, fall. |
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Heliomeris multiflora often combines with Erigeron speciosus (Showy Daisy) for a spectacular August and September display in high mountain meadows, this one on the shoulder of Abajo Peak in Utah. August 24, 2005. |
Range map © John Kartesz,
County Color Key
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Range map for Heliomeris multiflora |