Please try our next iteration of the Michigan Flora Online here. Beginning on February 1, 2023, michiganflora.net will point to this new site.

The new site offers several benefits over the existing website, including real coordinate mapping, giving a clearer view of the density of documentation as well as more precision about plant distributions and their link to landforms. We will also have the ability to update species pages more regularly, both in terms of new collections and as more existing Michigan specimens are georeferenced. In addition, we have a better photo display, and offer indented keys.

B. S. Walters

All Images Enlarge Image

Roadsides, railroads, fields; jack pine, oak, and aspen savannas. Like so many of our sunflowers, the native range is obscure, but this is likely adventive from farther west (or escaped from gardens, as it is a showy species). Our earliest collections are from along railroads and none were made before 1898 when collected in Muskegon and Washtenaw Cos.

This is a fairly easily recognized species, especially if the typically folded (and arcuate) leaves are present. The upper part of the stem (or peduncles) usually has evident dense white pubescence, but such can also be seen in some plants of H. giganteus, which may also have nearly entire leaves (though not folded or arched). The habitat may help to separate these two; H. maximiliani is always in dry, open sites, and H. giganteus frequently in wetter sites. The rays in our specimens run 1.7–3.3 cm long; they are reported longer elsewhere. On richer soils the plants may approach 3 m in height, but they are usually less, often much less, than a third that tall.

Citation: