Species
+

Helianthus maximiliani Schrad.

Maximilian Sunflower, Maximilian sunflower (EN), Maximilian's Sunflower, Maximillian sunflower

Climate known 60 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Helianthus maximiliani is a North American species of sunflower known by the common name Maximilian sunflower.

Text from Wikipedia, “Helianthus maximiliani”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Helianthus

Helianthus is a genus comprising around 50 species of annual and perennial flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae commonly known as sunflowers. The species of Helianthus are native to North America. The best-known species is the common sunflower. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Helianthus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
Schrad.
Native to
Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba +42
Wild records
1697 in range· 524 open

At a glance

Warmest month
32°C
Jul, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
899mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 112 mm (CHELSA)
Light
15–43DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to October in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 899 mm a year, wettest June at 112 mm, driest January at 44 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 43 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -12.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Helianthus dalyi Britton; Helianthus maximiliani f. maximiliani; Helianthus maximiliani f. pallidus Clute; Helianthus maximiliani var. asperrimus Engelm. & A.Gray; Helianthus maximiliani var. dalyi Farw. and 3 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to October in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (687 mm of 899 mm) takes 8 months, March to October. Mean temperature moves 24.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 899 mm a year, wettest June at 112 mm, driest January at 44 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

899 mm a year at the habitat, 687 mm of it March to October. Wettest month June at 112 mm, driest January at 44 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 565 mm to 1186 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 43 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 43 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 9, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -12.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -12.2 °C, the absolute minimum -23.3 °C, about 83 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -1.2 °C in January (across the envelope cells -14.4 °C to 6.3 °C), warmest day 32.3 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -12.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 58% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 8 °C in Jan to 32 °C in Jul; mean night from -1 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 899 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1001 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -23.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 39.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-20°20°40°60°frost39.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-23.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 15–43RH 55–58 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1001 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C8 / -6–1711 / -3–1916 / 4–2221 / 13–2626 / 19–2930 / 24–3232 / 27–3432 / 26–3528 / 21–3122 / 13–2715 / 4–219 / -4–17
Night °C-1 / -14–61 / -12–85 / -6–1110 / 1–1515 / 8–2020 / 13–2322 / 16–2522 / 16–2517 / 11–2112 / 4–176 / -4–120 / -12–7
Rain mm44 / 15–8451 / 15–7969 / 29–9874 / 41–99107 / 71–141112 / 90–13980 / 52–11472 / 50–11281 / 55–10792 / 45–12666 / 24–10151 / 18–92
DLI18 / 11–1922 / 18–2428 / 25–3035 / 33–3737 / 37–3941 / 39–4343 / 40–4439 / 34–4133 / 26–3425 / 17–2618 / 11–2015 / 9–18
RH %58 / 56–6658 / 56–6457 / 55–6055 / 53–5757 / 54–6058 / 56–6057 / 53–5956 / 53–6056 / 54–5957 / 55–5858 / 56–6158 / 56–66

Each figure is the median across the 1001 grid cells holding the 1613 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1075:1710 (36.225, -94.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -23.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -12.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1001 distinct grid cells holding the 1613 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1075:1710 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 36.00_-94.375, lapse-corrected -31 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 365 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, California, Utah, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Northeast· introduced: Czechoslovakia, Germany
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker30.607, -97.541 · in the densest population, 967 records (57% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1697 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 524 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 62 km away. 22 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 84 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1697 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Helianthus maximilianiHelianthus maximilianiHelianthus maximilianiHelianthus maximilianiHelianthus maximilianiHelianthus maximilianiHelianthus maximilianiHelianthus maximiliani

Photographs: (c) Tom Norton, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6); no rights reserved · CC0 (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Helianthus maximiliani, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Natural selection drives clinal life history patterns in the perennial sunflower species, Helianthus maximiliani
Takeshi Kawakami, Theodore J. Morgan, Jesse B. Nippert, Troy W. Ocheltree (2011) · Molecular Ecology
Protocols for efficient repetitive and secondary somatic embryogenesis in Helianthus maximiliani (Schrader)
Dragana Vasić, Gilbert Alibert, Dragan Škorić (2001) · Plant Cell Reports
Permanent Genetic Resources added to the Molecular Ecology Resources Database 1 February 2010–31 March 2010
Didier Aurelle, A J Baker, Lorraine Bottin, Carine Brouat (2010) · Molecular Ecology Resources
Interspecific hybrids of sunflower as a source of Sclerotinia resistance
S. Rönicke, Volker Hahn, Renate Horn, I. Grone (2004) · Plant Breeding
Insects Associated with Cover Crops in Massachusetts
Robert L. Bugg, Ruth Tracy Ellis (1990) · Biological Agriculture & Horticulture
Sesquiterpene lactones from a texas population of Helianthus maximiliani
Jonathan Gershenzon, Tom J. Mabry (1984) · Phytochemistry
Stratification Improves Seed Germination of Five Native Wildflower Species
Carlma B. Bratcher, John M. Dole, Janet C. Cole (1993) · HortScience
Heliangolides from Helianthus maximiliani
Werner Herz, Narendra Kumar (1981) · Phytochemistry
Effect of Aminopyralid on Canada Thistle (Cirsium arvense) and the Native Plant Community in a Restored Tallgrass Prairie
Travis L. Almquist, Rodney G. Lym (2010) · Invasive Plant Science and Management

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Helianthus 6 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 62 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.