Common name: Heliopsis Ballerina, False Sunflower, Ox-eye, Sunflower Heliopsis
Botanical name: Heliopsis helianthoides 'Ballerina' Family: Asteraceae (Sunflower family)
False Sunflower is a large coarse perennial growing up to 5 ft tall
from a heavy fibrous rootstock. The thin 3-6 in dark green ovate
leaves have sandpapery surfaces (both above and below) and toothed margins.
They grow on short petioles, usually in opposite pairs, but sometimes arranged
in whorls of three.
The cultivar 'Ballerina' puts on a show of semi-double, 2-3 inch wide, golden
yellow flowers all summer long. The flowers are shaped like a ballerina's tutu
and this is, perhaps, how it got its name. False sunflower in native to North
America, from New Mexico east into South Carolina and north into southern
Canada. False sunflower was originally a species of tallgrass prairies and
savannas.
| Photographed in Pune, Maharshtra |
Identification credit: Swati Kale
|
ntroduced