466 COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY) 
Seed-time: August to October. 
Range: Minnesota to the Northwest Territory, and southward to 
Missouri and Texas. Locally in the Eastern States. 
Habitat: Meadows, waste places, fence rows, roadsides. 
When kept within bounds this is a useful plant, which for many 
years has been extensively cultivated both in this country and in 
Europe. A fine, clear oil is expressed from its seeds, which are also 
a very nutritious and fattening food for poultry, horses, and other 
stock. Its leaves also are considered good fodder. 
In rich soil some of the cultivated forms attain to fifteen feet 
in height, with flower-heads a foot or more across. But inits native 
home on the western prairies the stout, rough stem is usually three 
to eight feet tall, branching at the top. Leaves three inches to a 
foot in length, broadly oval, pointed, three-ribbed, rough on both 
sides, with stout, hairy petioles. Heads three to six inches broad, 
with many large, bright yellow, sterile rays; disk-florets tubular, 
five-lobed, dark purple or brown, perfect, and fertile. Involucre 
depressed with oblong, rough-hairy, and sharp-pointed bracts. 
Achenes large, oblong, nearly smooth, grayish brown with white 
marginal stripes, with a deciduous pappus of two to four thin 
chaffy scales. 
Means of control 
The weed is readily subdued by cultivation of the soil; but in 
meadows and other ground where tillage is not practicable, seed de- 
velopment should be prevented by cutting or pulling the plants while 
in their first bloom. Plants growing along roadsides, banks of 
streams, and waste places should have like treatment. 
STIFF SUNFLOWER 
Helidnthus scabérrimus, Ell. 
Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: August to September. 
Seed-time: September to October. 
Range: Michigan to the Saskatchewan, and southward to Illinois, 
Colorado, and Texas. 
Habitat: Meadows, waste places, borders of streams. 
