''Helianthus simulans'' is a 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 muck sunflower. It is native to the southeastern and south-central United States, from eastern Texas to the Carolinas. There are some suggestions that the populations in the eastern half of that range might represent naturalizations.
''Helianthus simulans'' grows in wet, mucky soils in marshes, ditches, and roadsides. It is an perennial herb up to 260 cm (over 8 feet) tall, spreading by means of underground rhizomes. One plant usually produces 1-15
flower head
A pseudanthium (Greek for "false flower"; ) is an inflorescence that resembles a flower. The word is sometimes used for other structures that are neither a true flower nor a true inflorescence. Examples of pseudanthia include flower heads, compos ...
s, each containing 12–23 yellow
ray florets
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 ...
surrounding 100 or more red, yellow, or brown
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.
Flora of North America, ''Helianthus simulans'' E. Watson, 1929. Muck sunflower
/ref>
References
External links
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, University of Texas
simulans
Flora of the Southern United States
Plants described in 1841
{{Heliantheae-stub