Helianthus laciniatus
Helianthus mollis
alkali sunflower
ashy sunflower, downy sunflower
erect, usually strigose or hispid to glabrate.
erect, hirsute to villous.
cauline; opposite or alternate;
sessile;
blades (green or grayish, 1- or 3-nerved) lanceolate, 5–9 × 0.5–3.5 cm, bases ± cuneate, margins entire or irregularly toothed to lobed, faces strigose to strumose, gland-dotted (adaxial sometimes glaucous).
mostly cauline; mostly opposite (sometimes alternate among heads);
sessile;
blades (ashy or gray-green, 3-nerved distal to bases) lanceolate to broadly ovate, 5.5–14.5 × 1.8–6.5 cm, bases rounded to cordate, margins entire or serrulate, abaxial faces hispid to tomentose, gland-dotted.
4–13 cm.
0.1–15 cm.
hemispheric, 10–24 mm diam.
broadly hemispheric, 12–25 mm diam.
14–20;
laminae ca. 8–11 mm.
17–22;
laminae 25–30 mm (abaxial faces densely gland-dotted).
40+;
corollas 4.8–5.8 mm, lobes reddish;
anthers purplish, appendages reddish (style branches yellow).
75+;
corollas 6–7.5 mm, lobes yellow;
anthers dark, appendages dark.
16–21, lanceolate, 6–7.5 × 1.8–2.5 mm (often subequal), (margins ciliate) apices acute, abaxial faces hispidulous or strigose to glabrate, gland-dotted.
30–40, lanceolate, (5–)10–16 × 2–3.5 mm, apices usually acute, sometimes acuminate, abaxial faces densely hispid to villous or tomentose, densely gland-dotted.
1–9.
1–15.
2.7–3.5 mm, glabrate;
pappi of 2(–3) aristate scales 1.4–2.5 mm.
3.5–4 mm, distally villous;
pappi of 2 aristate scales 2.8–3.2 mm.
7–7.8 mm, entire or 3-toothed (apices obtuse to acute, hispid-ciliate to glabrate).
(oblanceolate) 9–11 mm, entire (1-toothed, densely hairy, densely gland-dotted).
= 34.
= 34.
Helianthus laciniatus
Helianthus mollis
Helianthus laciniatus reaches the northern extent of its range in New Mexico and Texas; it is relatively common in the Chihuahuan Desert areas of Mexico. It is similar to H. ciliaris; it usually has hairy stems as well as denser leaf indument that includes a greater number of subsessile, glandular hairs.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Helianthus mollis is introduced in Ontario and adventive in the eastern United States (e.g., Maine), where it is continuing to spread, particularly along roads. Natural hybrids between H. mollis and H. occidentalis have been named H. cinereus Torrey & A. Gray (R. C. Jackson and A. T. Guard 1957); they differ from H. mollis by having smaller heads with fewer ray florets and narrower leaves with cuneate bases. Hybrids of H. mollis with H. giganteus have been called H. doronicoides Lamarck (Jackson 1956).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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