Little Sunflower

Left image
Closeup of yellow Little Sunflower.

Right image
Cluster of yellow Little Sunflowers.

Little Sunflower - Helianthella uniflora

Plants of this species look like garden sunflowers but only grow a couple of feet tall and produce flowers only a couple of inches across. In fact, what most people consider to be the “flower” is really an inflorescence consisting of many tiny, individual flowers grouped into a head.

This species, like most members of the Aster family, produce two kinds of flowers: ray flowers along the outside that look like petals and disk flowers in the dark center. Each of these flowers contains male and female parts and produces a fruit containing a single seed.

Little Sunflowers grows in rocky areas at the top of meadow slopes. As the scientific name indicates, there is usually only one flower per stem which differentiates it from other similar species of yellow daisy such as Showy Goldeneye (Viguiera multiflora).