Maximillian Sunflower

Scientific Name: Helianthus maximiliani Schrad.
Common Name: Maximilian Sunflower

Morphological Characteristics:

Habit- native perennial woody forb reaching 3 to 30 centimeters tall from several mostly simple stems; flowers late summer and fall; reproduces by seed and rootstock
Leaves- alternate, simple, lanceolate, generally acuminate at both ends; mostly 14 to 30 centimeters long and 20 to 55 millimeters broad, margins entire to obscurely serrate, surficially with many short hairs imparting a grayish-green color, sessile.
Flowers- heads in a simple terminal racemose arrangement; ray flowers 25 to 35 millimeters long and bright yellow in color, disk flowers 10 to 12 millimeters long.
Fruit- achenes
Other- stems scabrous or with abundant white hairs Habitat and Range: frequent in seasonally moist ditches, depressions, or prairies, north central, south east Texas, and Edwards Plateau; infrequent in Plains Country and rare in the Trans-Pecos.

Conservation Use:

Why collect this plant? Texas Plant Materials Centers have identified this plant as having potential benefits to the following conservation practice standards: 645 Upland
Wildlife Habitat Management and 550 Range Planting. Your assistance in collecting this plant helps support the NRCS conservation practice standards which are employed daily to conserve the natural resources of Texas!

Center Requesting Seed:

E. Kika de la Garza Plant Materials Center

How to Collect Seed

1. Identify native plant stands in your area. You can go to the following websites for helpful photos http://plants.usda.gov or http://www.noble.org/imagegallery/index.html or www.wildflower.org.
   
Determine if seed is mature. Mature seed is typically dry and will easily separate from the seed head.

Hand strip mature seed by grasping the bottom of the seed head then gently pulling away from the base of the plant. Deposit seed in a brown paper sack. Collect seed from a minimum of 30 to 50 plants.

Label each collection as it is made so collections do not get mixed up. Information required includes: Collector’s name, number of plants collected, location (parish, city, highway, GPS coordinates), site description (soil type, slope, plants growing in association).

5. Complete NRCS-ECS-580; Plant Collection Information Form and mail with collected seeds to the NRCS Plant Material Center requesting the species.

E. Kika de la Garza Plant Materials Center
3409 N FM 1355
Kingsville, TX 78363

Helpful Tips

Look for superior plants that display differences in color, height, or forage abundance and record observations. Differences in growing site or location should be made into separate collections if they are separated by more than 1 mile between sites.

Photos:

Maximillian sunflower

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NRCS Species for 2006 Plant Collections - Maximilian Sunflower (PDF; 196 KB)