COMPOSITAE COMPOSITE FAMILY 
JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE 
Helianthus tuberosus L. 
This plant gets its name by corruption of the Italian 
“Girasole Articocco,” meaning sunflower artichoke. 
This Sunflower, which grows from Nova Scotia to Manitoba 
and from Georgia to Arkansas and 
Kansas, produces irregularly pear- 
shaped edible tubers closely resembling 
potatoes in their food qualities. It was 
formerly cultivated by Indians and is 
grown by white men for themselves and 
as food for pigs, which are often turned 
into the field. 
This and the Pale Sunflower de- 
scribed below are found to- 
gether on moist soil and 
along roadsides and other 
waste places, and bloom 
from September to frosts. 
A single plant may produce 30-S0 tubers, by 
means of which it is perennial. The upright 
stem, growing from the tuber, rises 2-10 feet, 
usually branching near the top and bearing 
several heads of yellow flowers. The lower leaves are sometimes 
12 inches long but they become smaller toward the upper part of 
the stem. 
see 
The 12-20 ray flowers possess neither stamens nor pistils and 
so do not produce fruits, but the yellow disk flowers, one of which 
is shown, are perfect and produce 1-seeded fruits. Each disk 
flower is accompanied on the receptacle by a chaffy scale, and the 
2 scales at the top of the ovary, which represent the pappus, soon 
fall off. 
The Pale Sunflower, Helianthus decapetalus L., resembles the 
Jerusalem Artichoke but does not produce tubers, has a less hairy 
stem and only about 1o pale yellow ray flowers. The leaves are thin 
or membranous and but 3-8 inches long. The lower are opposite and 
slender petioled. The upper are commonly alternate, usually sharply 
toothed, roughish above and sparingly fine haired beneath, and with 
the round or squarish bases extending down the petioles. 
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