Index / Search / Helianthus annuus
§1 Plant — species · Asteraceae
Helianthus annuus L.
vernacular common sunflower
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Forb/herb
- Duration
- Annual
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Asteraceae Bercht. & J. Presl
- Genus
- Helianthus
§2a
Native status, by region
- AK Alaska Introduced
- CAN Canada Introduced
- HI Hawaii Introduced
- L48 Lower 48 States Native
- PR Puerto Rico Introduced
- SPM St. Pierre & Miquelon Introduced
§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- Medium
- Shade
- High
- Moisture use
- Medium
- Fire
- None
- Salinity
- Medium
- Anaerobic
- Low
- CaCO₃
- Medium
- Hedging
- None
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- 52 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 80 min.
- Precipitation
- 12–60 in/yr
- pH range
- 5.5–7.8
- Root depth
- 8 in min.
- Fertility need
- Low
- Soil texture
- coarse, medium, fine
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Single Crown
- Growth rate
- Rapid
- Mature height
- 9 ft
- Foliage texture
- Coarse
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Porous
- Porosity (winter)
- Moderate
- Flower colour
- Yellow
- Fruit colour
- Blue
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- None
- Toxicity
- None
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Summer
- Seed abundance
- High
- Seed begins
- Summer
- Seed ends
- Fall
- Spread rate
- Moderate
- Stratify
- No
- Seeds / lb
- 46,919
- Propagation
- seed
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- Routinely Available
- Nursery stock
- No
- Browse palatability
- Medium
- Graze palatability
- Medium
- Palatable, human
- Yes
- Protein potential
- Medium
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Montana distribution
Recorded in 35 of 56 Montana counties.
Native · 35 counties
- Big Horn 30003
- Blaine 30005
- Carbon 30009
- Carter 30011
- Cascade 30013
- Chouteau 30015
- Custer 30017
- Daniels 30019
- Fallon 30025
- Fergus 30027
- Flathead 30029
- Gallatin 30031
- Garfield 30033
- Golden Valley 30037
- Hill 30041
- Lewis and Clark 30049
- McCone 30055
- Musselshell 30065
- Park 30067
- Petroleum 30069
- Phillips 30071
- Powder River 30075
- Prairie 30079
- Richland 30083
- Roosevelt 30085
- Rosebud 30087
- Sanders 30089
- Sheridan 30091
- Silver Bow 30093
- Sweet Grass 30097
- Teton 30099
- Treasure 30103
- Valley 30105
- Wibaux 30109
- Yellowstone 30111
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/HEAN3 ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/9206251 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-25
fetched 2026-05-25T16:28:53Z