COMPOSITAE 



COMPOSITE FAMILY 



JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE 



Heliant/ius 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 30-50 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. 



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 i-seeded fruits. Each disk 

 flower is accompanied on the receptacle by a chaff'y 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 10 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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