You have a smile like an acre of sunflowers…“You’re from Texas”, lyrics by Cindy Walker

Yes, this is a native sunflower. You could call it a “composite.”

All “basket flowers” or members of the sunflower family (or aster family, if you prefer) have their tiny, subdued flowers arranged in compact heads. A single head is sometimes called a “capitulum,” which of course means “little head.”

Remember that a fruit ripens from each ovary of a flower, and in members of this family, the fruit is always a hard, single-seeded nutlet – a good example would be a sunflower seed. But you must remember that the striped, unshelled sunflower seeds you buy as a snack or the black ones you buy for bird feeders are the fruit. Not the seeds.

The kernel is in there. So if you go to a sporting event where the spectators are eating sunflower seeds, the little black things you see at your feet are the husks of the fruit. The kernels have been chewed up. The same thing happens at the bottom of your bird feeder. Let’s move on.

Most of the Asteraceae bloom in groups later in the year. Goldenrod, chrysanthemums, sunflowers, agrimony and asters immediately spring to mind as striking autumn bloomers. Others, such as coneflowers and meadowsweet, bloom best in the summer months.

Of course, dandelions and some other, mostly introduced, Asteraceae flower early, but here is a native species that is causing quite a stir.

Our Mystery Plant (Hairy Sunflower, Helianthus hirsutus) is actually widespread across the eastern half of North America. From Pennsylvania down to Texas, it’s pretty widespread, essentially. I saw it the other day here in South Carolina near a little town called Mitford, which is not far off I-77 south of Charlotte.

It really likes to grow in wooded places or on the edges of thickets, often along road cuttings or highway embankments, and not in particularly special natural areas. The plants grow from rhizomes and form coarsely hairy stems up to 6 feet tall, often leaning forward. The leaves are opposite, that is, 2 at a time, with a short stalk and a widened, somewhat lance-shaped leaf blade.

Each flower head is located at the end of a branch, and at the base of the head is a row of fairly pointed bracts. Sunflower species (well, almost all of them) have both disc florets (on the inside of the head) and ray florets (on the outside), which many people, certainly not the loyal readers of this column, know are not “petals” but flowers themselves.

In cultivation, this species should make a great addition to gardens – although I have not heard of it being used in that way. You know, there are actually many other sunflowers used in cultivation. Some are annuals, of course, but there are perennial species too: they are easy to grow and, when they flower, make everyone happy. And what about those goldfinches you’ve always wanted to see?

John Nelson is retired curator of the herbarium at the University of South Carolina. As a public service, the herbarium offers free plant identifications. For more information, call 803-777-8175 or email [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Found in wooded areas, hairy sunflowers can grow 6 feet tall,