Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Muck Sunflower - Helianthus simulans   E. Watson
Members of Asteraceae:
Members of Helianthus with account distribution info or public map:
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Section 6 » Family Asteraceae
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AuthorE. Watson
DistributionKnown from a roadside in Burke County in 2006 and also from Randolph County (BONAP, no data available). A third specimen was collected from a roadside DOT planting in Mecklenburg County in 1996. A collection from Anson County was made in 2022.

Native of the Gulf Coastal Plain from southwestern GA to southeastern TX.
AbundanceVery rare. Apparently becoming popular in cultivation.
HabitatMoist roadside.
PhenologyFlowering and fruiting September-November.
IdentificationIt has a dark disk, and it resembles H. angustifolius but is more robust (over 4.5 feet tall) and with broader leaves (more than 1 cm wide), and with the rare H. floridanus but with longer and narrower leaves (usually 10 or more times as long as wide vs. less than 5 times or less as long as wide in that species).
Taxonomic CommentsThought by Cronquist (1980) to be a hybrid of H. angustifolius and H. maximilianii. However, neither FNA nor Weakley suggest that it is of hybrid origin.

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