Helianthus annuusL.

Common Sunflower

WFO wfo-0000088131 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY In the accuracy benchmark

Plate 1 figs. a–h

Helianthus annuus, photographed by Mary K. Hanson
fig. a Mary K. Hanson, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-28 / obs. 202346448
Helianthus annuus, photographed by Center for Urban Ecology
fig. b Center for Urban Ecology, CC0 1.0 / obs. 198698972
Helianthus annuus, photographed by Rich Sommer
fig. c Rich Sommer, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 195796601
Helianthus annuus, photographed by Mary K. Hanson
fig. d Mary K. Hanson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194095157
Helianthus annuus, photographed by Chris Hughes
fig. e Chris Hughes, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203311675
Helianthus annuus, photographed by Marvelyn Granger
fig. f Marvelyn Granger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199778870
Helianthus annuus, photographed by natgrace18
fig. g natgrace18, CC0 1.0 / obs. 193302506
Helianthus annuus, photographed by Annika Lindqvist
fig. h Annika Lindqvist, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 195052313

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Flowering n = 6,091 observations

Peak flowering in Aug, from 6,091 community-annotated observations worldwide. This is a global aggregate, not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres, and citizen-science records cluster near cities, at weekends, and in spring. Where a species has fewer than 30 annotated records we do not draw this chart at all.

Also published as 25 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Helianthus annuus f. annuus
  • Helianthus annuus f. lenticularis (Douglas ex Lindl.) B.Boivin
  • Helianthus annuus subsp. annuus
  • Helianthus annuus subsp. jaegeri (Heiser) Heiser
  • Helianthus annuus subsp. texanus Heiser
  • Helianthus annuus var. annuus
  • Helianthus annuus var. aridus Cockerell
  • Helianthus annuus var. coronatus Cockerell
  • Helianthus annuus var. inornatus Cockerell
  • Helianthus annuus var. lenticularis (Douglas ex Lindl.) Steyerm.
  • Helianthus annuus var. lenticularis (Douglas ex Lindl.) Cockerell
  • Helianthus annuus var. macrocarpus (DC.) Cockerell
  • Helianthus annuus var. texanus (Heiser) Shinners
  • Helianthus annuus var. vinosissimus Cockerell
  • Helianthus aridus Rydb.
  • Helianthus aridus var. aridus
  • Helianthus erythrocarpus Bartl.
  • Helianthus indicus L.
  • Helianthus jaegeri Heiser
  • Helianthus macrocarpus DC.
  • Helianthus macrocarpus DC. & A.DC.
  • Helianthus multiflorus Hook.
  • Helianthus ovatus Lehm.
  • Helianthus platycephalus Cass.

and 1 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice, no toxicity claim and no native range, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.