Common sunflower

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Common sunflower

Common sunflower

Common sunflower

Common sunflower inflorescence in winter

Common sunflower habit

Common sunflower

Common sunflower

Common sunflower bracts

Common sunflower

Common sunflower leaf

Common sunflower

Common sunflower

Common sunflower inflorescence

Morphology

Stem

Erect, upwardly branched, rough-hairy.

Leaves

Chiefly alternate but lowermost opposite, long stalked, blade triangular-ovate or broader, 4 to 16 inches long, about 1/2 as wide; base heart-shaped or truncate; margins toothed or nearly entire.

Inflorescence

Heads large, borne on long stalks, stalks with wide-spreading hairs.

Flower

Disk more than 1 inch across; involcural bracts ovate to ovate-lanceolate, more than 1/6 inch wide, coarse-hairy, gradually tapering to slender tip, margin usually fringed; ray florets 17 or more, in single series, yellow, ligule 1 inch or longer, infertile; disk florets numerous, reddish to purplish or rarely yellow, fertile, chaffy bracts deeply 3-toothed.

Fruit

Achenes, compressed, 1/8 to 3/5 inch long, glabrous or pubescent; pappus of 2 principal awns, sometimes small, secondary scales present.

Ecology

Habitat

Open, disturbed areas, roadsides, and low moist ground.

Distribution

Throughout Kansas.

Practical Information

Uses

Nearly all parts of this plant can be utilized. The seeds can be eaten raw, cooked, roasted, or dried and ground for use in bread or cakes. The seeds and the roasted seed shells have been used as a coffee substitute. Oil can be extracted and used for cooking and soap making. Yellow dyes have been made from the flowers, and black dyes from the seeds. The residue oil cake has been used as cattle and poultry feed, and high quality silage can be made from the whole plant. The buoyant pith of the stalk has been used in the making of life preservers.

Additional Notes