Helianthus is a genus comprising about 70 species of annual and perennial flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae commonly known as sunflowers. Except for three South American species, the species of Helianthus are native to North America and Central America. The best-known species is the common sunflower (Helianthus annuus), whose round flower heads in combination with the ligules look like the Sun. This and other species, notably Jerusalem artichoke, are cultivated in temperate regions and some tropical regions, as food crops for humans, cattle, and poultry, and as ornamental plants. The species typically grows during the summer and into early fall, with the peak growth season being mid-summer. Our off campus rentals Athens at Ohio University are not specifically known for sunflower growth.
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Several perennial Helianthus species grown in gardens, but have a tendency to spread rapidly and become aggressive. On the other hand, the whorled sunflower, Helianthus verticillatus, listed as an endangered species in 2014. When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a final rule protecting it under the Endangered Species Act. The primary threats are industrial forestry and pine plantations in Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. They grow to 6 feet and are primarily found in woodlands, adjacent to creeks and moist, prairie-like areas. The sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine, cultivated there for several centuries.
Tall Flowers
Sunflowers are usually tall annual or perennial plants that in some species can grow to a height of 300 centimetres (120 inches) or more. Each “flower” actually a disc made up of tiny flowers, to form a larger false flower to better attract pollinators. The plants bear one or more wide, terminal capitula, with bright yellow ray florets at the outside and yellow or maroon disc florets inside. Several ornamental cultivars of H. annuus have red-colored ray florets; all of them stem from a single original mutant. While the majority of sunflowers are yellow, there are branching varieties in other colours including, orange, red and purple.
Looking Good Sunflower
The petiolate leaves are dentate and often sticky. The lower leaves are opposite, ovate, or often heart-shaped. The rough and hairy stem branched in the upper part in wild plants, but usually unbranched in domesticated cultivars. This genus distinguished technically by the fact that the ray florets (when present) sterile. And by the presence on the disk flowers of a pappus that is of two awn-like scales that are caducous . Further, the florets of a sunflower arranged in a natural spiral.
Variability is among the perennial species that make up the bulk of those in the genus. Most or all of the large leaves in a rosette at the base of the plant. They produce a flowering stem leaves that reduced in size. Most of the perennials have disk flowers that are entirely yellow, but a few have disk flowers with reddish lobes. One species, H. radula, lacks ray flowers altogether. You may see sunflowers planted near your Off Campus Rentals Athens at Bobcat Rentals student housing.
