Western Sunflower

Helianthus occidentalis, commonly called western sunflower, is one of the shortest of the many sunflowers that are native to the United States. It is a plant that occurs in glades, prairies, dry meadows, fields and rocky open woods. Large, long-stalked, ovate to oblong-lanceolate, basal leaves (to 8” long) form a 4-8” tall foliage clump. Sunflowers (to 2” diameter) with orange-yellow rays and yellow disks appear on stiff, almost naked, flower stems that typically rise to a height of 2-3’ (less frequently to 4’) tall. Blooms from mid-summer to fall. Western sunflower is actually native to eastern and central North America, not western North America. This plant is also sometimes commonly called naked stemmed sunflower and fewleaf sunflower in reference to the almost total absence of leaves from the flowering stems.

Genus name comes from the Greek words helios meaning sun and anthos meaning flower.

Specific epithet means west in the sense that North America is west of Europe.