Helianthus porteri

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Porter's sunflower, also known as Stone Mountain or Confederate daisy
Helianthus porteri on Stone Mtn.
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Helianthus
Species:
H. porteri
Binomial name
Helianthus porteri
(A.Gray) Pruski 1998 not (A.Gray) Heiser 1978 (1978 name not validly published)
Synonyms[1]
  • Gymnolomia porteri (A.Gray) A.Gray
  • Heliomeris porteri (A.Gray) Cockerell
  • Rudbeckia porteri A.Gray
  • Viguiera porteri (A.Gray) S.F.Blake

Helianthus porteri is a species of sunflower known by the common names Porter's sunflower,[2] Stone Mountain daisy[3] and Confederate daisy. The term "daisy" is imprecise because the species is a sunflower (Helianthus) rather than a daisy (Bellis and related genera). Likewise, although the plant grows on Stone Mountain, GA, its range extends well beyond. The connection to the Confederacy is through Stone Mountain which contains a confederate monument, although the connection is tenuous as the species was named before the Civil War in 1849 by Harvard botanist Asa Gray in honor of Thomas Conrad Porter, a Pennsylvanian minister and botanist who collected the plant in Georgia.[4] Gray initially named the plant Rudbeckia porteri,[5] later changed to Helianthus in 1998 by John F. Pruski.[6]

The species is native to the southeastern United States, including Alabama and Georgia, but has been introduced to granite outcrop areas in North Carolina as an aggressive weed.[7][8] Helianthus porteri grows on thin soils on and around flat rock granite and gneiss outcrops.[9] It is an annual herb up to 100 cm (40 inches) tall. One plant usually produces 5 or more flower heads, each containing 7 or 8 yellow ray florets surrounding 30 or more yellow disc florets.[10][11]

References[edit]

  1. ^ The Plant List, Helianthus porteri (A.Gray) Pruski
  2. ^ USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Helianthus porteri". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  3. ^ Scott Ranger's Nature Notes http://scottranger.com/helianthus-porteri-confederate-daisy.html
  4. ^ Heller, A. A. (1901). "Thomas Conrad Porter". The Plant World. 4 (7): 130–131. ISSN 0096-8307. JSTOR 43475709.
  5. ^ "Rudbeckia porteri in Global Plants on JSTOR". plants.jstor.org. Retrieved 2022-09-19.
  6. ^ Pruski, John F. (1998). "Helianthus porteri (A. Gray) Pruski (Compositae), a New Combination Validated for the Confederate Daisy". Castanea. 63 (1): 74–75. ISSN 0008-7475.
  7. ^ Biota of North America Program 2014 county distribution map
  8. ^ Weakley AS. 2015. Flora of the southern and mid‐Atlantic states. University of North Carolina Herbarium, North Carolina Botanical Garden, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. [WWW document] URL http://www.herbarium.unc.edu/flora.htm Archived 2018-10-06 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ Scott Ranger's Nature Notes http://scottranger.com/helianthus-porteri-confederate-daisy.html
  10. ^ Flora of North America, Helianthus porteri (A. Gray) Pruski, 1998. Confederate daisy
  11. ^ Blake, Sydney Fay 1918. Contributions from the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University 54: 114–115, as Viguiera porteri

External links[edit]