Plant of the Week: Early Sunflower

Early sunflower also known as Heliopsis helianthoides is a perennial growing up to five feet tall. It gets its common name from being one of the first sunflowers to bloom in early summer. H. helianthoides may be found in a wide variety of habitats; open woods, woodland borders and clearings, thickets, grassy meadows, savannas, limestone glades, tallgrass prairies, Blackland prairies, stream banks, roadsides, railroad rights of way and other disturbed sites. Plants form robust clumps but are not aggressive or invasive. Stems are clothed in pairs of opposite coarsely serrate leaves. In summer, plants are topped by numerous golden daisies held on long stalks and are visited by honey bees, native bees, beneficial wasps, pollinating flies, butterflies, skippers and beetles.

Written by Ayanna Beckett, Conservation Ecology Trainee