Helianthus petiolarisNutt.

prairie sunflower

WFO wfo-0000012852 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Helianthus petiolaris, photographed by Elliott Gordon
fig. a Elliott Gordon, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-15 / obs. 197971610
Helianthus petiolaris, photographed by rappman
fig. b rappman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159290554
Helianthus petiolaris, photographed by Dominic Gentilcore
fig. c Dominic Gentilcore, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 157827405
Helianthus petiolaris, photographed by Spencer Quayle
fig. d Spencer Quayle, CC0 1.0 / obs. 152354383
Helianthus petiolaris, photographed by José Gerardo Velasco
fig. e José Gerardo Velasco, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 144759502
Helianthus petiolaris, photographed by Jacob Saucier
fig. f Jacob Saucier, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 163653137
Helianthus petiolaris, photographed by Eric Lamb
fig. g Eric Lamb, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 141363302
Helianthus petiolaris, photographed by Elliott Gordon
fig. h Elliott Gordon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 133637296

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.

Native range 46 botanical countries

Regions where Helianthus petiolaris is native: Alberta, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Manitoba, Massachusetts, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Saskatchewan, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming AlbertaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasLouisianaMaineManitobaMassachusettsMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMichiganMinnesotaMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOntarioOregonPennsylvaniaSaskatchewanSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyoming DelawareDistrict of Columbia
Native distribution of Helianthus petiolaris, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alberta ABT NORTHERN AMERICA
Arizona ARI
Arkansas ARK
California CAL
Colorado COL
Connecticut CNT
Delaware DEL
District of Columbia WDC
Idaho IDA
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Louisiana LOU
Maine MAI
Manitoba MAN
Massachusetts MAS
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Missouri MSO
Montana MNT
Nebraska NEB
Nevada NEV
New Jersey NWJ
New Mexico NWM
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
North Dakota NDA
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Ontario ONT
Oregon ORE
Pennsylvania PEN
Saskatchewan SAS
South Carolina SCA
South Dakota SDA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Utah UTA
Virginia VRG
Washington WAS
West Virginia WVA
Wisconsin WIS
Wyoming WYO

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 721 in flower of 741 examined

Peak flowering in Mar. Each bar is the share of Helianthus petiolaris observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 721 of 741 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,908 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -16.6 °C -5.5 °C 6.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.2 °C 31.1 °C 35.1 °C
Annual rainfall 238 mm 454 mm 937 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 11 mm 46 mm 108 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,908 research-grade observations of Helianthus petiolaris that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 9 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 subsp. petiolaris (Nutt.) Anashch.
  • Helianthus couplandii B.Boivin
  • Helianthus integrifolius Nutt.
  • Helianthus integrifolius var. gracilis Nutt.
  • Helianthus integrifolius var. integrifolius
  • Helianthus patens Lehm.
  • Helianthus petiolaris var. fallax (Heiser) B.L.Turner
  • Helianthus petiolaris var. patens Rydb.
  • Helianthus petiolaris var. petiolaris

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.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

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