# false sunflower

*Heliopsis helianthoides*

Unlike true sunflowers, both the outer ray flowers and the inner disk flowers of the false sunflower are fertile and capable of producing seeds.

- **Taxonomy:** Plantae › Tracheophyta › Magnoliopsida › Asterales › Asteraceae › Heliopsis
- **IUCN Red List status:** Least Concern
- **Population trend:** stable
- **Biome:** grassland
- **Habitat:** Tallgrass prairies, meadows, open woodlands, and roadsides.
- **Diet:** Autotrophic (photosynthesis)
- **Range:** North America, United States, Canada
- **Size:** 90 to 150 cm tall
- **Lifespan:** Perennial (3 to 5+ years)
- **Active:** diurnal
- **Threats:** Habitat fragmentation, agricultural expansion, and competition from invasive plant species.
- **Safe to approach?:** Harmless. This plant is completely safe to approach, touch, and photograph. Please avoid trampling wild patches and do not harvest wild specimens so that local pollinators can continue to feed.

## About

Heliopsis helianthoides is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, known by the common names rough oxeye , smooth oxeye and false sunflower . It is native to eastern and central North America from Saskatchewan east to Newfoundland and south as far as Texas, New Mexico, and Georgia.

## Sources

- Plate: https://gaia-dex.com/species/3f26d66a-15a5-4fdb-b0c0-dc3aacf33b9a
- iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/130382
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliopsis helianthoides
- Conservation status: IUCN Red List category, as recorded by Gaia-Dex
- Photo: https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/133677/medium.jpg (Joshua Mayer, CC-BY-SA, via iNaturalist)

Habitat, diet, size and similar notes are AI-written summaries; check them against the linked sources before relying on them.