Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Asterales > Asteraceae > Helianthus > Helianthus annuus

Helianthus annuus (Sunflower)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Helianthus annuus, the common sunflower, is a large annual forb of the genus Helianthus grown as a crop for its edible oil and edible fruits (sunflower seeds). This sunflower species is also used as bird food, as livestock forage (as a meal or a silage plant), and in some industrial applications. The plant was first domesticated in the Americas. Wild Helianthus annuus is a widely branched annual plant with many flower heads. The domestic sunflower, however, often possesses only a single large inflorescence (flower head) atop an unbranched stem. The name sunflower may derive from the flower's head's shape, which resembles the sun, or from the impression that the blooming plant appears to slowly turn its flower towards the sun as the latter moves across the sky on a daily basis.
View Wikipedia Record: Helianthus annuus

Infraspecies

Helianthus annuus unranked
Helianthus annuus var. armavirskij
Helianthus annuus var. bicolor
Helianthus annuus var. californicus
Helianthus annuus var. citrinus
Helianthus annuus var. gallardiflorus
Helianthus annuus var. globosus
Helianthus annuus var. intermedius
Helianthus annuus var. uniflorus
Helianthus annuus var. zonatus

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Medium
Screening - Summer [2]  Porous
Screening - Winter [2]  Moderate
Bloom Period [2]  Summer
Drought Tolerance [2]  Medium
Edible [3]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [2]  None
Flower Type [3]  Hermaphrodite
Frost Free Days [2]  80 days
Fruit/Seed Abundance [2]  High
Fruit/Seed Begin [2]  Summer
Fruit/Seed End [2]  Fall
Growth Form [2]  Single Crown
Growth Period [2]  Summer
Growth Rate [2]  Rapid
Hazards [3]  The growing plant can accumulate nitrates, especially when fed on artificial fertilizers; The pollen or plant extracts may cause allergic reactions;
Leaf Type [2]  Deciduous
Lifespan [3]  Annual
Pollinators [3]  Bees, Flies
Propagation [2]  Seed
Root Depth [2]  8 inches (20 cm)
Seed Spread Rate [2]  Moderate
Seed Vigor [2]  Low
Seeds Per [2]  46919 / lb (103439 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [2]  Erect
Structure [5]  Herb
Usage [3]  An edible semi-drying oil is obtained from the seed. Some varieties contain up to 45% oil; The oil is also used, often mixed with a drying oil such as linseed (Linum usitatissimum) to make soap, candles, varnishes, paint etc, as well as for lighting. The oil is said to be unrivalled as a lubricant; A blotting paper is made from the seed receptacles; A high quality writing paper is made from the inner stalk; The pith of the stems is one of the lightest substances known, having a specific gravity of 0.028; It has a wide range of applications, being used for purposes such as making life-saving appliances and slides for microscopes; The dried stems make an excellent fuel, the ash is rich in potassium; Both the dried stems and the empty seed receptacles are an excellent kindling; A fibre from the stem is used to make paper; A yellow dye is obtained from the flowers; A purple-black dye is obtained from the seed of certain varieties that were grown by the Hopi Indians of S.W. North America; Sunflowers can be grown as a spring-sown green manure, they produce a good bulk of material; Root secretions from the plant can inhibit the growth of nearby plants;
Vegetative Spread Rate [2]  None
Flower Color [2]  Yellow
Foliage Color [2]  Green
Fruit Color [2]  Blue
Fall Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Flower Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Fruit Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Height [3]  9.84 feet (3 m)
Width [3]  12 inches (0.3 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [2]  USDA Zone: 12 Low Temperature: 50 F° (10 C°) → 55 F° (12.8 C°)
Light Preference [4]  Mostly Sunny
Soil Acidity [4]  Moderate Acid
Soil Fertility [4]  Rich
Soil Moisture [4]  Moist
Water Use [2]  Moderate
View Plants For A Future Record : Helianthus annuus

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Emblem of

Kansas
Ukraine

Predators

Providers

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Helicotylenchus dihystera (Steiner's spiral nematode)[13]
Puccinia helianthi[6]
Pustula tragopogonis[6]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 3Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 4ECOFACT 2a Technical Annex - Ellenberg’s indicator values for British Plants, M O Hill, J O Mountford, D B Roy & R G H Bunce (1999)
♦ 5Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 6Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 7Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 8Chaetodipus hispidus, Deborah D. Paulson, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 320, pp. 1-4 (1988)
♦ 9Dipodomys ordii, Tom E. Garrison and Troy L. Best, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 353, pp. 1-10 (1990)
♦ 10Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 11Species Profile and Threats Database, Australian Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities
♦ 12Robertson, C. Flowers and insects lists of visitors of four hundred and fifty three flowers. 1929. The Science Press Printing Company Lancaster, PA.
♦ 13Species Interactions of Australia Database, Atlas of Living Australia, Version ala-csv-2012-11-19
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0