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Helianthus pumilus; photograph (c) Destynnie K. Berard, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Destynnie K. Berard, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-07-26

Helianthus pumilus Nutt.

Dwarf sunflower; Little sunflower

Asteraceae · Colorado, Wyoming

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Helianthus pumilus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedHelianthus pumilus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedHelianthus pumilus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedHelianthus pumilus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedHelianthus pumilus, photograph (c) Jared Lincenberg, some rights reserved (CC BY)Helianthus pumilus, photograph (c) Jared Lincenberg, some rights reserved (CC BY) 99 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-16.6°C
Record low -27.9 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
465mm
8 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
16–47DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes March to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Helianthus pumilus is a North American species of sunflower known by the common name little sunflower or bush sunflower. It is found in the western United States, primarily the Rocky Mountain region of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado, with a few isolated populations in Utah and Idaho.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Helianthus pumilus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Helianthus

Helianthus is a genus comprising around 50 species of annual and perennial flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae commonly known as sunflowers. The species of Helianthus are native to North America. The best-known species is the common sunflower. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Helianthus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (355 mm of 464 mm) falls in March to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 12.0 °C against a yearly mean of 6.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to March.

Rain

464 mm in the median year at the habitat, 355 mm of it March to September. Wettest month May at 64 mm, driest month January at 15 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 378 mm to 535 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 465 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 464 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 47 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -16.6 °C, the absolute minimum -27.9 °C, 7,280 frost nights in 44 years, 165.5 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -9.1 °C in December (across the grid cells of the range -12.3 °C to -6.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.8 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -16.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 51 to 53% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +169 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Helianthus pumilus through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month December, mean nightly low -9.1 °C; 464 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-40°-20°0°20°40°frost35.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-27.9° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075mm rainDLI 16–47RH 51–53%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 283 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C4 / 0–65 / 1–89 / 4–1213 / 8–1618 / 14–2124 / 20–2627 / 23–3026 / 22–2922 / 18–2516 / 12–188 / 4–113 / -1–5
Night °C-9 / -12–-7-9 / -12–-6-5 / -9–-3-2 / -5–14 / 0–69 / 5–1112 / 9–1512 / 8–148 / 4–102 / -1–4-5 / -8–-3-9 / -12–-7
Rain mm15 / 9–1818 / 11–2340 / 24–4958 / 42–6964 / 56–7351 / 45–6055 / 44–7149 / 37–7438 / 31–4534 / 26–4021 / 15–2521 / 12–24
DLI18 / 16–2025 / 23–2733 / 32–3541 / 39–4344 / 43–4647 / 47–4846 / 46–4741 / 40–4235 / 34–3626 / 24–2819 / 17–2116 / 14–17
RH %52 / 50–5652 / 51–5652 / 51–5552 / 51–5453 / 51–5552 / 50–5451 / 48–5352 / 49–5551 / 49–5451 / 50–5352 / 50–5553 / 51–56
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 283 grid cells holding the 1068 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1001:1494 (39.925, -105.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -27.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -16.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 283 distinct grid cells holding 1068 of the 1068 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1001:1494 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 40.00_-105.000, lapse-corrected +169 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1970 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeColorado, Wyoming · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker40.029, -105.214 · in the densest population, 1205 records (90% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1336 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1068 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 449 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 4 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 268 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1336 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Helianthus pumilus, photograph 1did not loadHelianthus pumilus, photograph 2did not loadHelianthus pumilus, photograph 3did not loadHelianthus pumilus, photograph 4did not loadHelianthus pumilus, photograph 5did not loadHelianthus pumilus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) Jared Lincenberg, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Penstemon secundiflorus Penstemon secundiflorus Sidebells penstemon Photo: CC BY, Ron BurkertHumulus neomexicanus Humulus neomexicanus Neomexicanus Hops Photo: CC BY, Sue CarnahanCrataegus erythropoda Crataegus erythropoda Cerro hawthorn Photo: CC BY, Jared ShormaScutellaria brittonii Scutellaria brittonii Britton's skullcap Photo: CC BY, Stephen HornbeckDelphinium geyeri Delphinium geyeri Geyer's larkspur Photo: CC0, author not statedPopulus angustifolia Populus angustifolia Mountain cottonwood Photo: CC BY, Daughter Dad

Other Helianthus 44 in the reference

Helianthus agrestis Helianthus agrestis Rural sunflower Photo: CC BY, sblumenHelianthus angustifolius Helianthus angustifolius Swamp sunflower Photo: CC BY, Sam KieschnickHelianthus annuus Helianthus annuus Sunflower Photo: CC BY, Michelle W. （鍾偉瑋）Helianthus anomalus Helianthus anomalus Sand sunflower Photo: CC BY, Patrick CoxHelianthus argophyllus Helianthus argophyllus Silverleaf sunflower Photo: CC BY, Suanne PyleHelianthus atrorubens Helianthus atrorubens Purple-disk sunflower Photo: CC0, author not statedHelianthus bolanderi Helianthus bolanderi Bolander's sunflower Photo: CC BY, Larry JensenHelianthus californicus Helianthus californicus California sunflower Photo: CC BY, jayjtHelianthus carnosus Helianthus carnosus Fleshy sunflower Photo: CC BY, Brandon CorderHelianthus ciliaris Helianthus ciliaris Texas blueweed Photo: CC BY, Eric KnightHelianthus debilis Helianthus debilis Cucumberleaf sunflower Photo: CC0, author not statedHelianthus decapetalus Helianthus decapetalus Thinleaf sunflower Photo: CC0, author not stated all 45 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Helianthus pumilus var. nicolletii; Helianthus pumilus var. pumilus. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
Nutt.
Native to
Colorado, Wyoming
Wild records
1336 in range · 449 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 17 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (14 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 40.00_-105.000, lapse-corrected +169 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Helianthus pumilus Nutt. (the item's: IPNI 119234-2, POWO 119234-2)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 44 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…