WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

This towering, robust annual grows up to 9-feet tall with a thick, woody, hairy stem and upper branches with numerous flower heads. Masses can create a dense “forest” in abandoned fields. Large, heart-shaped leaves and oval, hairy phyllaries help distinguish this species.

FLOWER: May–October.  The 4-inch wide (10 cm) flower heads have 15 or more yellow, petal-like ray flowers, each exceeding 1-inch long (25 mm), around a yellow to reddish-brown disk. The phyllaries beneath the rays are hairy and oval to elliptic, not slender or lance-shaped, and have thin, pointed tips and ciliate hairs on the margins. The flower heads tend to orient to the sun’s track across the sky.

LEAVES: Lower leaves opposite, upper alternate. Blade hairy, heart-shaped blades reach 12 inches long (30 cm) and wide on long stems (petioles).

HABITAT: Dry soils of fields, roadsides, disturbed areas; widespread from desert grasslands and scrub to pinyon-juniper plant communities.

ELEVATION: 3,900–8,400 feet.

RANGE: Nationwide.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The annual Prairie Sunflower, H. petiolaris, almost statewide, has numerous alternate, lance-shaped stem leaves, and lance-shaped phyllaries covered with rough hairs. Stiff Sunflower, H. pauciflous, a rhizomatous perennial, has mostly basal leaves with a few widely-spaced opposite, lance-shaped stem leaves, a dark-brown disk, and phyllaries with ciliate hair on the margins.

NEW MEXICO COUNTIES: Statewide in low- to mid-elevation, dry habitats.

NOTE: Sunflowers have been cultivated for edible seeds in the Americas since pre-Colombian times. Commercial varieties with giant flower heads are grown ornamentally and for food and oil. Goldfinches, sparrows, and other birds feast on the seeds and even the leaves. Native bees and other pollinators depend on the pollen as a late summer food source necessary for overwintering.