Ashy Sunflower

Photo of ashy sunflowers showing flowers, leaves, and stems.
Scientific Name
Helianthus mollis
Family
Asteraceae (daisies, sunflowers)
Description

Ashy sunflower is a perennial sunflower usually appearing in colonies. The foliage is conspicuously hairy.

The flowerheads are few, often a lemony yellow, to 3½ inches wide. The overlapping bracts beneath the flowerhead are many, narrow, and thin.

Blooms July–October.

The leaves are sessile (stalkless), stiff, densely gray-hairy, broadly ovate, opposite, with inconspicuous teeth.

Similar species: Of the 6 most widely distributed sunflowers in Missouri, 2 others have leaves with very short petioles (leaf stems):

  • Stiff-haired sunflower (H. hirsutus) has fairly uniform lanceolate leaves, almost all opposite, with small teeth. The rough hairs make it feel like sandpaper. The flowerheads are all yellow; the rays often point upward.
  • Prairie sunflower (H. pauciflorus) grows to 7 feet tall and has toothless, rough-hairy, mostly broadly lanceolate leaves that are green (not grayish). The disk florets are purple, the flowerheads few, but large.

For an overview of Missouri’s sunflowers, visit their group page.

Other Common Names
Hairy Sunflower
Size

Height: to 4 feet, but usually much shorter.

Where To Find
image of Ashy Sunflower Hairy Sunflower Distribution Map

Common in the Unglaciated Plains Division, thus mostly in the southern half of the state, scattered elsewhere. Mostly absent from northwestern Missouri.

Primarily occurs in prairies, but also roadsides and fields: Upland prairies and glades, pastures, old fields, fencerows, margins of ditches, railroads, and roadsides.

Tallgrass prairies have a special charm that is not apparent when you speed by them on a highway. But if you visit a prairie regularly, and watch plants like ashy sunflower grow and develop over the course of a year, you learn to love even their dried remains that stand starkly through the winter.

Sunflowers provide nectar and pollen to a great variety of insects, plus a hunting ground for spiders, assassin bugs, and other predators of the many insects attracted to the nectar and pollen.

When the flowers are spent, birds and mammals, including finches and rodents, relish the sunflower seeds.

Media Gallery
Photo of ashy sunflowers showing flowers, leaves, and stems.
Often growing in colonies, ashy sunflower is relatively short compared to other sunflowers.
Anonymous
Use of this image is restricted to MDC only
1/7
Photo of an ashy sunflower flowerhead.
The few flowerheads of ashy sunflower have 17–30 ray florets, which are often a lemony yellow.
Photo by MDC Staff, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
2/7
Photo of the base of an ashy sunflower flowerhead, showing involucral bracts.
The overlapping bracts beneath the flowerhead of ashy sunflower are many, narrow, and covered with hairs.
Photo by MDC Staff, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
3/7
Photo of many blooming ashy sunflower plants, showing gray-green leaves.
Ashy sunflower is a native perennial wildflower that usually grows in colonies.
Photo by MDC Staff, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
4/7
Photo of ashy sunflower stem showing two opposite, sessile leaves.
The leaves of ashy sunflower are opposite, sessile, broadly ovate, stiff, and densely gray-hairy, with inconspicuous teeth.
Photo by MDC Staff, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
5/7
Photo of many blooming ashy sunflower plants, showing gray-green leaves.
Colonies of ashy sunflowers make a striking late summer display in our native tallgrass prairies.
J. E. Wylie
Photo by J. E. Wylie, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
6/7
Photo of an ashy sunflower flowerhead, plus several stems, leaves, and buds.
Sunflowers feed a variety of insects with nectar and pollen, and their seeds feed finches, mice, and more.
J. E. Wylie
Photo by J. E. Wylie, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
7/7
Photo of ashy sunflowers showing flowers, leaves, and stems.
Photo of an ashy sunflower flowerhead.
Photo of the base of an ashy sunflower flowerhead, showing involucral bracts.
Photo of many blooming ashy sunflower plants, showing gray-green leaves.
Photo of ashy sunflower stem showing two opposite, sessile leaves.
Photo of many blooming ashy sunflower plants, showing gray-green leaves.
Photo of an ashy sunflower flowerhead, plus several stems, leaves, and buds.
Similar Species

Where to See Species

Four turkeys at Hi Lonesome Prairie CA
Hi Lonesome Prairie Conservation Area
This 655-acre native prairie was purchased from Vaughn Lumpee in 1987. Mr. Lumpee ran a cattle operation on this area and he had a great fondness for the cowboy lifestyle.
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!