Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Prairie Sunflower - Helianthus petiolaris   Nuttall
Members of Asteraceae:
Members of Helianthus with account distribution info or public map:
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Section 6 » Order Asterales » Family Asteraceae
AuthorNuttall
DistributionScattered in 5 counties from the Sandhills to the outer Coastal Plain -- all collected between 1938 and 1972. Three of the specimens were originally determined as H. debilis and later annotated.

Native of the Great Plains.
AbundanceRare.
HabitatRoadsides, sandhill, pine forest, brackish marsh.
PhenologyFlowering and fruiting May-August.
IdentificationNC plants are a maximum of 3 feet tall, a single stem with alternate, long-stalked, narrowly triangular leaves. It is very similar to H. debilis, but the leaf bases are usually cuneate (vs. truncate in that species) and the receptacle bracts at the center of the head are white-bearded (vs. not so in H. debilis).
Taxonomic Comments
Other Common Name(s)
State RankSE
Global RankG5
State Status
US Status
USACE-agcp
USACE-emp
County Map - click on a county to view source of record.
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B.A. SorrieSandhills of NE, route 83, July 2020. Photo_non_NCPhoto_non_NC
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