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Published In: Index Seminum Horti Academici Gottingensis 1835: 3. 1834[1835]. (Index Seminum (Gottingen)) Name publication detail
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 8/11/2017)
Acceptance : Accepted
Project Data     (Last Modified On 7/9/2009)
Status: Native

 

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7. Helianthus maximilianii Schrad. (Maximilian sunflower)

Pl. 280 g, h; Map 1194

Plants perennial herbs, with relatively short-creeping, thick, branched rhizomes and often somewhat succulent roots, often occurring as dense colonies of stems. Stems often appearing somewhat clumped, 50–200(–250) cm long, moderately to densely pubescent with more or less stiff, short, ascending, often pustular-based hairs throughout, not glaucous. Leaves relatively numerous and well developed along the stem (usually more than 30 nodes), mostly alternate, mostly short-petiolate, often appearing arched. Blades of the stem leaves 4–30 cm long, 0.5–5.5 cm wide, narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate or narrowly elliptic-lanceolate (mostly 7–20 times as long as wide), folded longitudinally along the midvein, tapered at the base, tapered to a sharply pointed tip, the margins entire or less commonly with minute, widely spaced teeth, flat, the surfaces moderately to more commonly densely roughened-pubescent with minute, usually stout, loosely appressed, pustular-based hairs (usually appearing grayish green), also with moderate to dense, sessile, yellow glands, with 1 main vein. Inflorescences of solitary terminal heads or small terminal clusters, also usually with axillary single or clustered heads present from the upper leaves, commonly appearing overall spicate or racemose, the heads short- to long-stalked. Involucre 12–25 mm long, 15–28 mm in diameter, mostly extending beyond the tips of the disc corollas, the bracts in 2 or 3 subequal series, narrowly lanceolate to nearly linear, tapered to a sharply pointed, slender, loosely ascending to more commonly spreading or recurved tip, the margins with a dense fringe of short hairs, at least toward the base, the surfaces moderately to densely roughened-hairy and often also with scattered, sessile, yellow glands. Receptacle convex, the chaffy bracts 7–11 mm long, narrowly oblong-triangular to nearly linear, angled or short-tapered to a sharply pointed, green, minutely hairy tip, the outer surface also minutely hairy. Ray florets 10–25, the corolla 2.5–4.0 cm long, glabrous but often with scattered, sessile, yellow glands. Disc florets with the corolla 5–7 mm long, yellow throughout. Pappus of 2 scales 3–4 mm long, these oblong-lanceolate, tapered abruptly to a sharply pointed, often minutely awnlike tip. Fruits 3–4 mm long, narrowly wedge-shaped, flattened but more or less 4-angled in cross-section, the surface glabrous, often finely mottled with dark brown and lighter brown patches. 2n=34. July–October.

Scattered nearly throughout the state (most of the U.S. [except some western and southeastern states]; Canada). Calcareous glades, ledges and tops of bluffs, upland prairies, loess hill prairies, and savannas; also old fields, railroads, roadsides, and open, disturbed areas.

Maximilian sunflower is a strikingly beautiful plant that makes an excellent addition to the wildflower garden where there is room for it to grow. In cultivation, plants usually develop into large, dense clumps of many stems to 3 m tall, increasing in diameter slowly each year. Steyermark (1963) noted that the form usually observed in disturbed habitats in eastern Missouri is similar to a cultivar developed in the St. Louis area with more numerous heads having longer ray corollas. He considered the species native only from the western portion of the Ozarks northward to the loess hills of northwestern Missouri. Today, it has become difficult to assess the eastern edge of the species’ native distribution as it has been collected more frequently away from roadsides in the eastern half of the state. Gleason and Cronquist (1991) considered H. maximilianii to occur natively at least as far eastward as Ohio.

 


 

 
 
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