''Helianthus carnosus'' is a rare North American species of

sunflower The common sunflower (''Helianthus annuus'') is a large annual forb of the genus ''Helianthus'' grown as a crop for its edible oily seeds. Apart from cooking oil production, it is also used as livestock forage (as a meal or a silage plant), as ...

known by the common name lakeside sunflower. It is found only in the northeastern part of the state of

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

in the United States. ''Helianthus carnosus'' is a perennial herb up to 60 cm (2 feet) tall. Most of the leaves are close to the base of the stem, each leaf hairless, evergreen, up to 25 cm (10 inches) long. There are only a few small leaves on the stem, the only species in Florida with that characteristic. One plant usually produces only one flower head, rarely 2 or 3. Each head has with 12-17 yellow ray florets surrounding 100 or more yellow

disc floret The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

s. The plant grows in wet sites in prairies in coastal beach sands at low elevations.Small, John Kunkel 1902. Torreya 2(5): 74–75
/ref>

References

External links

carnosus Endemic flora of Florida Plants described in 1902 Taxa named by John Kunkel Small Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Heliantheae-stub