Marshall Junction Conservation Area is off Route CC in southern Saline County. The area is approximately two miles south and three miles west of the I-70/Highway 65 intersection.
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Name
Edible
Scientific Name
Helianthus annuus
Family
Asteraceae (daisies, sunflowers)
Description
Common sunflower is the poster child of the sunflower family. In its wild form, or in any of the many cultivated varieties, it provides its own sunny impression. Globally, it's a economically important crop. It's also the state flower of Kansas.
Common sunflower is an annual sunflower, extremely variable in height and appearance, with hairy stems.
The flowerheads of the wild form are many per plant, large, with brown disks, and frequently with a double set of yellow ray florets. The disk is usually a couple inches in diameter, not including the rays.
Cultivated forms often have only one, often huge, flowerhead per plant.
Blooms July–November.
The leaves are large, ovate to broad, with irregular, large teeth, mostly alternate except the uppermost ones. The lower leaves are usually heart-shaped (a key identifier). All the leaves are rough and hairy.
Similar species: There are 16 species of sunflowers (genus Helianthus) in Missouri. Common sunflower is distinguished by the following:
- Its leaves have long petioles (leaf stalks), lacking wings.
- The leaf blades are rather broad, with the larger leaves ovate to heart-shaped with irregular, large teeth.
- The leaves are mostly alternate, except those at the very top.
- The disks are reddish brown to dark purple (several other sunflowers have yellow disks).
For an overview of Missouri’s sunflowers, visit their group page.
Other Common Names
Annual Sunflower
Size
Height: usually to 7 feet in wild forms. Cultivated forms can be much larger.
Where To Find
Statewide, scattered. Mostly absent from the Ozarks and Mississippi Lowlands.
Habitat and Conservation
Grows scattered in wasteland along roadsides as well as in cultivation.
Status
Possibly a native Missouri wildflower. Scattered and common. Many cultivated varieties have been developed.
This species is cultivated worldwide, primarily for its edible seeds, which yield an edible oil. It is also cultivated as an ornamental plant in landscaping and to as sell as cut flowers.
No one knows for sure if this species is truly native to Missouri, since Native Americans domesticated and distributed the plant early, and European settlers also spread the plant around.
Human Connections
The common sunflower is a tremendously useful plant historically as well as today.
The species was originally cultivated and domesticated by indigenous American people in pre-Columbian times. They spread it throughout the Americas. Sunflowers are important to many Native American cultures spiritually, ceremonially, or in folklore.
Europeans brought the common sunflower to Europe as early as the 1500s. The most famous domesticated common sunflower, the unbranched, large-headed ‘Mammoth Russian’ type, was developed in Russia, then brought to America.
This species is the most important crop plant that is native to the United States. It is cultivated worldwide for sunflower oil, which is made from the seeds.
The seeds are nutritious, nutty, and crunchy. They can be eaten out of hand as snacks, sprinkled on salads or ice cream, added to muffins, cookies, and other baked goods, ground into a spread (sunflower butter), ground into a flour, made into sunflower brittle, used instead of pine nuts in pestos, and added to soups as a garnish. Don't forget about chocolate-covered sunflower seeds, too!
At one time Missouri was a leading producer of sunflowers.
The plant is a longtime favorite ornamental for gardeners. Sunflowers are a beautiful midsummer selection for cut-flower arrangements.
Sunflowers provide food for livestock and wildlife:
- The remaining portions of sunflower seeds, after processing for oil, is used as food for livestock.
- MDC plants sunflowers in food plots for wildlife in several of its conservation areas. Some of these areas, full of spectacular blooms, have become popular destinations for families and photographers.
The common sunflower is celebrated worldwide by painters, photographers, poets, and novelists.
The sunflower is a beloved national symbol of Ukraine.
Many baseball players snack on sunflower seeds while in their dugout, instead of the chewing tobacco they formerly used.
In her old age, and losing her vision, the grandmother of the person who wrote this field guide page made sunflowers her favorite flower. To cheer herself up, she taped a big cluster of imitation sunflowers to her walking cane. Maybe you know someone who especially loves sunflowers, too.
To learn more, read the fascinating (and fun) book The Sunflower, by ethnobotanist and enthusiastic sunflower specialist Charles B. Heiser.
Ecosystem Connections
Birds and small mammals eat the seeds, which are rich in oil and proteins, as well as the foliage.
- The rich seeds are eaten by songbirds (such as finches, sparrows, and cardinals), upland game birds (such as bobwhite, prairie chicken, doves, and turkey), squirrels, and mice.
- Mammals that browse the foliage include rabbits, woodchucks, and deer.
Many kinds of insects visit the flowers for nectar and pollen.
- Pollinators include a wide array of bees, including honeybees, bumblebees, digger bees, megachilid (leaf-cutter) bees, sweat bees, and others.
- Some species of bees specialize in visiting sunflowers (genus Helianthus) almost exclusively.
- Butterflies, skippers, soldier beetles, syrphid flies, bee flies, and others collect nectar and pollen.
Other insects chew the foliage, roots, or other plant parts, or suck the juices of sunflowers: leaf beetles, long-horned beetles, weevils, leaf-miners, gall flies, tephritid fruit flies, grasshoppers, aphids, treehoppers, leaf hoppers, spittlebugs, and plant bugs.
Moth and butterfly caterpillars that eat sunflowers include the painted lady, gorgone checkerspot, silvery checkerspot, and a number of tiger, tortricid, and noctuid moths.
Several of insects are especially strongly associated with sunflowers and may be limited to them as food plants.
With all the insects visiting the flowers or chomping the leaves, other, predatory insects lie in wait for them: crab spiders and other spiders, assassin bugs and ambush bugs, robber flies, and so on.
Insectivorous birds like dickcissels, meadowlarks, bobolinks, flycatchers, and indigo buntings forage amid sunflowers in grasslands and pastures for the bountiful insects humming around the blossoms.
Because they grow readily on open or disturbed ground, sunflowers help bind the soil.
Taxonomy: What do we mean when we call a plant a "sunflower"?
- Often, when a plant is called a "sunflower," it refers to this species, Helianthus annuus, or one of its many cultivated forms.
- But it is also correct to call any species in genus Helianthus a sunflower, as this is the sunflower genus (Helia = sun; anthus = flower).
- Even more broadly speaking, the third largest tribe (subgroup) of the aster family is the Heliantheae, which contains genus Helianthus plus about 2,500 other species globally; many of these resemble and are called sunflowers.
- To learn more about the whole genus of sunflowers, visit their group page.
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Media Gallery
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Caption
Once again, this season Columbia Bottom staff has planted additional sunflower fields for viewing and photo opportunities. MDC staff has staggered the timing of the plantings to spread the blooming periods out through mid-August.
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Photo by MDC Staff, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
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Credit
MDC Staff
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Use of this image is restricted to MDC only
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Credit
Noppadol Paothong
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Photo by Noppadol Paothong, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
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Caption
Columbia Bottom staff has planted additional sunflower fields for viewing and photo opportunities again this year. MDC crews have staggered the timing of the plantings to spread the blooming periods out through mid-August.
Credit
MDC
Right to Use
Photo by MDC, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
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Right to Use
Use of this image is restricted to MDC only
Image
Caption
New this season, Columbia Bottom staff has planted some additional sunflower fields, many of which are close to the visitor center and easily spotted from the road. MDC staff has staggered the timing of the plantings to spread the blooming periods out through mid-August.
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Photo by MDC Staff, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
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Submitted by Megan Groezinger
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Submitted by Carol S Bock
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Caption
The dark, brown disks at the heart of the common sunflower hold hundreds of small flowers. Each tiny blossom contains both male and female reproductive parts, allowing the plant to produce a bounty of seeds.
Credit
MDC staff
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Photo by MDC staff, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
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David Stonner
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Photo by David Stonner, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
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A sunflower at Davisdale Conservation Area
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Missouri Department of Conservation photo
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Photo by Missouri Department of Conservation photo, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
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MDC
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Photo by MDC, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
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Similar Species
Similar Species
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Where to See Species
Lichen Glade NA, containing a large complex of dry sandstone cliff, glade, and woodland is an example of a xeric habitat.
Columbia Bottom is for those who love wide, open spaces. It's located in a floodplain at the Confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, the two largest in North America.
About Wildflowers, Grasses and Other Nonwoody Plants in Missouri
A very simple way of thinking about the green world is to divide the vascular plants into two groups: woody and nonwoody (or herbaceous). But this is an artificial division; many plant families include some species that are woody and some that are not. The diversity of nonwoody vascular plants is staggering! Think of all the ferns, grasses, sedges, lilies, peas, sunflowers, nightshades, milkweeds, mustards, mints, and mallows — weeds and wildflowers — and many more!