GIANT SUNFLOWER 



Helianthus giganteus L. 

 THISTLE FAMILY 



The Giant Sunflower is so called because of its tall stems 

 which sometimes grow ten feet high, although half that height 

 or less is commoner. As compared with the thick stems, broad 

 leaves, and massive heads of the cultivated Russian sunflower, 

 it is not at all gigantic, for its stem is usually much branched and, 

 except at the base, rather slender, its leaves narrow and taper- 

 pointed, and its flower-heads only two or two-and-a-half inches 

 across. Still it is a big, vigorous plant and with such a capacity 

 for spreading and massing that it may often become a troublesome 

 weed in low ground. From the Lake of the Woods to the Rockies, 

 the Giant Sunflower is abundant and furnishes in many, a mid- 

 summer landscape great expanses of radiant color. 



If a stem of this big herb be dug up in Autumn it will bring 

 with it a great cluster of roots. Some are ordinary feeding and 

 anchoring roots, others are so thickened as to look like small 

 sweet potatoes. From among these, spreading out in all directions, 

 are stout creeping rootstocks. In these spindle-shaped tubers 

 is stored concentrated building material upon which the runners 

 draw in early Spring, so getting a good start in their work of 

 extending the sunflower colony. 



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