Helianthus is a genus comprising about 70 species of annual and perennial flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae commonly known as sunflowers. Except for three South American species, the species of Helianthus are native to North America and Central America. The best-known species is the common sunflower. This and other species, notably Jerusalem artichoke, are cultivated in temperate regions and some tropical regions, as food crops for humans, cattle, and poultry, and as ornamental plants. The species H. annuus typically grows during the summer and into early fall, with the peak growth season being mid-summer.
Helianthus nuttallii, or Nuttall's sunflower, is a species of sunflower native to northern, central, and western North America, from Newfoundland west to British Columbia, south to Missouri, New Mexico, and California.
Helianthus pauciflorus, called the stiff sunflower, is a North American plant species in the family Asteraceae. It is widespread across the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the Great Lakes region, and naturalized in scattered locations in the eastern United States and in much of southern Canada.
Helianthus cusickii is a species of sunflower known by the common names Cusick's sunflower and turniproot sunflower. It is native to the western United States from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, northern California, and northwestern Nevada.
Artemisia spinescens is a North American species of sagebrush in the sunflower family, known by the common name budsage.
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 debilis is a species of sunflower known by the common names cucumberleaf sunflower, beach sunflower, weak sunflower, and East Coast dune sunflower. It is native to the United States, where it can be found along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. It is known elsewhere as an introduced species, such as South Africa, Australia, Taiwan, Slovakia, and Cuba.
Helianthus angustifolius is a species of sunflower known by the common name narrowleaf sunflower or swamp sunflower. It is native to the south-central and eastern United States, found in all the coastal states from Texas to Long Island, and inland as far as Missouri. It is typically found in the coastal plain habitat, particularly in wet areas.
Erigeron pumilus, the shaggy fleabane, or vernal daisy, is a hairy North American species of perennial plants in the family Asteraceae. It is widespread across much of western Canada and the western United States, from British Columbia east to Saskatchewan and south as far as Oklahoma and the San Bernardino Mountains of California. There have been reports of the plant growing in Yukon Territory, but these were based on misidentified specimens.
Eucephalus elegans is a North American species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae known by the common name elegant aster. It is native to the western United States, largely the Great Basin, in the states of Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming.
Helianthus atrorubens is a North American species of sunflower known by the common name purpledisc sunflower. It is native to the southeastern United States. It is found in all the coastal states from Louisiana to Virginia, plus the inland states of Kentucky and Tennessee.
Helianthus glaucophyllus is a species of sunflower known by the common name whiteleaf sunflower. It is native to the southeastern United States, in the southern Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina, Tennessee, and South Carolina, in and near Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Helianthus heterophyllus is a species of sunflower known by the common names variableleaf sunflower and wetland sunflower. It is native to the coastal plain of the southern United States from Texas to North Carolina.
Helianthus longifolius is a North American species of sunflower known by the common name longleaf sunflower. It is native to the southeastern United States.
Helianthus mollis is a species of sunflower known by the common names ashy sunflower, hairy sunflower or downy sunflower. It is widespread across much of the United States and Canada, primarily the Great Lakes region from Ontario south to Texas and Alabama. Additional populations are found in the states of the Atlantic Coast from Maine to Georgia, but these appear to be introduced.
Helianthus porteri is a species of sunflower known by the common names Porter's sunflower, Stone Mountain daisy and Confederate daisy. The term "daisy" is imprecise because the species is a sunflower (Helianthus) rather than a daisy. Likewise, although the plant grows on Stone Mountain, GA, its range extends well beyond. The connection to the Confederacy is through Stone Mountain which contains a confederate monument, although the connection is tenuous as the species was named before the Civil War in 1849 by Harvard botanist Asa Gray in honor of Thomas Conrad Porter, a Pennsylvanian minister and botanist who collected the plant in Georgia. Gray initially named the plant Rudbeckia porteri, later changed to Helianthus in 1998 by John F. Pruski.
Helianthus radula is a North American species of sunflower known by the common name rayless sunflower or pineland sunflower. It is native to the southeastern United States from eastern Louisiana to South Carolina.
Helianthus silphioides is a North American species of sunflower known by the common names rosinweed sunflower or Ozark sunflower. It is native to the central United States, primarily in the Ozarks and the Tennessee Valley with additional populations north into Kentucky and Illinois and south as far as Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
Eurybia glauca is a North American species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, called the gray aster. It is native to the western United States, primarily in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming, with a few populations in Idaho and Montana.
Helianthus nuttallii subsp. parishii is a subspecies of the species Helianthus nuttallii in the genus Helianthus, family Asteraceae. It is also known by the common names Los Angeles sunflower and Parish's sunflower. This subspecies has not been seen, in the wild or in cultivation, since 1937.
