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Helianthus petiolaris
Also called Lesser Sunflower, Petioled Sunflower, Plains Sunflower, Deceptive Sunflower, Prarie Sunflower, Showy Sunflower, Kansas Sunflower
Prairie sunflower is a fast-growing, taprooted annual native to the prairies of North America, with small yellow daisy-like flowers. It grows easily from seed in open, sunny, well-drained ground.
Helianthus petiolaris is a North American plant species in the family Asteraceae, commonly known as the prairie sunflower or lesser sunflower. Naturalist and botanist Thomas Nuttall was the first to describe the prairie sunflower in 1821. The word petiolaris in Latin means “having a petiole”. The species originated in Western United States, but has since expanded east. The prairie sunflower is sometimes considered a weed.
Helianthus petiolaris originated in the dry prairies of Minnesota, Oregon, Texas, the Dakotas, California, and other states in Western and Central United States. It has since expanded its distribution to throughout the Eastern United States and into central and western Canada. It is now the most widely distributed species of sunflower besides H. annuus.
Southeastern sunflower · Helianthus ambiguus · Swamp sunflower · Common sunflower · Western sunflower · Silverleaf sunflower · Arizona sunflower · Purpledisk sunflower · Serpentine sunflower · Helianthus brevifolius · California sunflower · Lakeside sunflower
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Helianthus petiolaris by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
