Blue Sky Botany – Sunflowers

Blue Sky Botany – Sunflowers

by | Aug 14, 2026 | Identification & Education

Blue Sky Botany — Sunflowers

Article and photos by Rob Baller. Input provided by Pat Trochlell, Jim Rogala and Dan Carter.

August 14, 2026

Botanist and early The Prairie Enthusiasts member Rob Baller created this series for our friends at Blue Mounds Area Project. The “blue sky” technique is Rob’s favorite for taking stunning plant photographs. Let him know what you think at robertballer@outlook.com.

ALWAYS get permission from the property owner if you want to try this technique.

Click to enlarge the images below!

Ox-eye

(Heliopsis helianthoides)

Mid-July-August. 3-5 ft tall. Mesic soil, usually full sun. Infamous for not being a true sunflower because both ray flowers and disk flowers form seeds. The rays impress me as being golden-orange rather than sunflower yellow. Leaves average twice as long as wide, creating a broadly triangular look, often squared at the base. It helps to unfold the curled leaf to examine it. Branching is strictly opposite, top to bottom.

Woodland sunflower

(Helianthus strumosus)

Mid-July-September. 3-6 ft tall. Petioles (leaf stem) a quarter inch long, leaf base squarish to broad and/or rounded, rough-scratchy to the touch, and those phyllaries under the flowers are peeling-away-little-wavy spears. I suspect this is the most common of the shade-tolerant ‘woodland’ sunflowers on all dappled roads and woodland edges in southern Wisconsin. In newer oak savanna restorations, it may explode into huge colonies. There are at least three more difficult species of woodland sunflowers that botanists disagree over. My advice is don’t worry about it.

Showy sunflower or few-leaved sunflower

(Helianthus pauciflorus, formerly H. laetiflorus)

August-September. 3-5 ft tall. Full sun, mesic to dry prairie. Leaf bases taper gradually into the petiole, forming an angle that is acute. Leaf tips equally acute. The leaf arrangement has less leaves toward the top (somewhere between naked and woodland with regard to number of leaves and location). Phyllaries twice as long as wide, or wider, fitting tightly to the underside of the flower like shingles on a roof, with maybe the tips slightly peeling. 

Dan Carter provided a taxonomic detail on this species: H. laetiflorus was often used for H. pauciflorus, but it also was and still is used for hybrids and backcrosses involving Helianthus tuberosus and Helianthus pauciflorus.

Western sunflower, naked stem sunflower or few-leaf sunflower

(Helianthus occidentalis)

August-September. 2-5 ft tall. Full sun, dry prairie, sands, barrens. Definitely our driest sunflower, well-adapted with leaves restricted to a rosette at the base, and maybe one or two pairs of tiny Tyrannosaurus leaves midway up the stem.

Sawtooth sunflower

(Helianthus grossesseratus)

September. 6-9 ft tall. Tallest common sunflower. Full sun, rich mesic soils, sometimes lining cornfield margins along with giant ragweed. Leaves long-tapering, arching, the edges slightly toothed; “sawtooth” is overly optimistic. Phyllaries are long-tapering, spreading, wavy spear points.

Giant sunflower

(Helianthus giganteius)

This sunflower is provided by Dan Carter. Quite similar to sawtooth sunflower. Common on The Prairie Enthusiasts’ sites. One main difference between sawtooth sunflower and giant sunflower is that sawtooth has smooth stems and giant sunflower has hairy stems. The two sunflowers sometimes occur together and hybridize.

About The Prairie Enthusiasts 

The Prairie Enthusiasts is an accredited land trust that seeks to ensure the perpetuation and recovery of prairie, oak savanna, and other fire-dependent ecosystems of the Upper Midwest through protection, management, restoration, and education. In doing so, they strive to work openly and cooperatively with private landowners and other private and public conservation groups. Their management and stewardship centers on high-quality remnants, which contain nearly all the components of endangered prairie communities. 

Blue Sky Botany – Thimbleweeds

Blue Sky Botany – Thimbleweeds

by | Jun 22, 2026 | Identification & Education

Blue Sky Botany – Thimbleweeds

Article and photos by Rob Baller

Originally written April 29, 2023

Botanist and early The Prairie Enthusiasts member Rob Baller created this series for our friends at Blue Mounds Area Project. The “blue sky” technique is Rob’s favorite for taking stunning plant photographs. Let him know what you think at robertballer@outlook.com.

ALWAYS get permission from the property owner if you want to try this technique.

Two thimbleweeds (Anemone cylindrica and A. virginiana) reside here in Wisconsin, one trending in the prairie and the other in oak savanna. Both have slender, stiff stems rising from the earth like antennae. Both produce a whorl of highly dissected, pointed, palmate leaves that emerge maybe half-way up the plant. Within this circle of leaves are a few more antennae; these become the stalks that bear a single flower on each antenna, somewhere between knee and waist high. All have 5 to 6 petals, and some people claim they are off-white or pale green or bland yellow. If these two different thimbleweeds accidentally sprout close to each other, as they are wont to do, we get confused, because they look mighty alike. Especially when there are no flowers, but only seed heads. Calm yourself. We’ll handle this. 

  

Prairie thimbleweed (A. cylindrica) 

June-July. Knee high. Sunny prairie, on steep and rolling hills and everywhere in between that’s pretty dry. Though I have not seen it in sand; let me know if you have. The seeds of this plant grow tightly compacted in a fuzzy, inch-long vertical cylinder the diameter of a pencil, and that shape helps name and identify this species. The color is usually whitish. The sides of the seed cylinder are parallel.  

  

Tall thimbleweed (A. virginiana) 

June-July. They tend to begin flowering a few weeks later than the prairie thimbleweed, but they do overlap. Shin to waist high. In part shade, from mesic to rocky ground, such as steep stony slopes with oak savanna, and on a variety of lightly shaded sites, making it possible to grow within feet of a bona fide prairie thimbleweed but not usually. Flowers are much like the prairie thimbleweed, but I believe more yellowish and a little larger on average even. The wooly seedhead thimble is oval.  Its sides are not parallel. And it appears more golden colored. 

  

The best, most reliable feature for distinguishing these two cousins is that prairie thimbleweed has only one whorl of leaves along its elongated flowering stems. Tall thimbleweed has an extra tier of leaflets; first there are the regular leaves, and then, higher up, are another grouping of smaller leaflets.  

  

It is tempting to describe how the leaves and/or leaflets of these species differ in shape and form. I feel they can be too close to call, confusing the innocent. Even my treasured reference book, Wildflowers of Wisconsin by the esteemed Merel Black and Emmet Judziewicz, appears to have a suspect photo of A. cylindrica, its leaf shape not quite right in my view. Perhaps there are regional variations I don’t know about. So, I won’t say anything. 

About The Prairie Enthusiasts 

The Prairie Enthusiasts is an accredited land trust that seeks to ensure the perpetuation and recovery of prairie, oak savanna, and other fire-dependent ecosystems of the Upper Midwest through protection, management, restoration, and education. In doing so, they strive to work openly and cooperatively with private landowners and other private and public conservation groups. Their management and stewardship centers on high-quality remnants, which contain nearly all the components of endangered prairie communities.