• Helianthus divaricatus (Woodland Sunflower) native plant in bloom
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Helianthus divaricatus (Woodland Sunflower)

Helianthus divaricatus (Woodland Sunflower)

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$ 160.00
$ 160.00
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Woodland Sunflower (Helianthus divaricatus) brings yellow flowers to open woods and woodland edges in summer and early fall. Its upright stems rise above opposite leaves, and established plants can reach roughly 2 to 6 feet tall. Unlike sunflowers that need an open prairie setting, this species also grows in partial shade. It tolerates dry conditions once established, provided the soil drains well.

Its spreading habit matters when choosing a location. Underground stems can produce broad colonies, so leave room for expansion rather than placing it among small, slow-growing woodland flowers. Use it in a larger woodland planting where spreading is acceptable, or plan to manage the edges of the colony.

Plant specifications

Key growing facts

Sunlight Full to partial sun
Soil moisture Moist to dry-mesic
Height 2½-6 ft
Bloom season Mid-summer to early fall

Native landscape companions

For full sun and mesic soil, consider these native plants alongside Helianthus divaricatus:

Companion plant Height
Rosinweed (Silphium integrifolium) 3-5 ft
Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium) 2-5 ft
Yellow Coneflower (Ratibida pinnata) Up to 4 ft
Wild Bergamot / Bee Balm (Monarda fistulosa) 2½–4 ft

These landscape suggestions combine overlapping growing needs with documented plant associations. Match soil, seasonal wetness and mature spread to your site. Remnant records are described separately under Plant communities & associates.

Show / hide ▾Growing & planting details
Growth habit Long rhizomes form vegetative colonies; may spread aggressively
Root form Rhizomes
Soil pH Published cultivation guidance lists acidic, neutral soil conditions; no optimal numeric interval is established.
Cultivation hardiness zones Zones 3a–8b (general cultivation guidance)
Drought tolerance Drought tolerance reported in cultivation guidance; establishment needs and duration are not specified.
Deer browsing White-tailed deer sometimes remove upper stems and leaves.
Salt tolerance Salt tolerance reported in cultivation guidance; dose and exposure route are not specified.

Plant identification & seed reference

Botanical name Helianthus divaricatus
Other common names woodland sunflower; Rough Sunflower; Woodland Sunflower
Plant family Asteraceae

Plant characteristics

Helianthus divaricatus (Woodland Sunflower) is a common flower found in open woodlands, savannas, and woodland edges.  It prefers mesic to dry conditions. The beautiful yellow flowers can fill a woodland in full fall glory.  However, be careful in small woodland gardens as it can be aggressive and overtake areas easily in conditions it prefers.

  • Flower Color Yellow
  • Flower Time July, September
    • Show / hide ▾Plant communities & associatesNo verified list yet

    Illinois community record

    Dry-mesic sand prairie — historical record

    Recorded in 1976 at Short Pioneer Cemetery Prairie, a small sand-prairie remnant in Grundy County. This plant was not relocated during the 2005–2006 survey; its present status is unassessed.

    This is a whole-remnant record; the plant’s exact microsite and neighboring species were not established.

    Show / hide ▾Native range & C-value

    State nativity describes a broad range. Use the Chicago-region assessment for local context; a state listing does not establish county nativity.

    Wetland indicator — Corps Chicago 2017 table UPL
    C-value — Chicago region, Flora 2017 5
    Chicago-region native — Flora 2017 Yes
    Native range — U.S. states Alabama; Arkansas; Connecticut; Delaware; Florida; Georgia; Illinois; Indiana; Iowa; Kentucky; Louisiana; Maine; Maryland; Massachusetts; Michigan; Mississippi; Missouri; New Hampshire; New Jersey; New York; North Carolina; Ohio; Oklahoma; Pennsylvania; Rhode Island; South Carolina; Tennessee; Vermont; Virginia; West Virginia; Wisconsin
    County nativity Grundy County, Illinois — historical prairie-remnant record (1976); not relocated in the 2005–2006 survey. County coverage is partial.
    Show / hide ▾Pollinators & wildlife

    Caterpillars & other plant-feeding insects

    This plant has published caterpillar host records for the butterflies and moths listed below. These are larval feeding relationships, separate from adult nectar visits. The records span a North American literature compilation and do not establish that every insect occurs locally or uses only this plant.

    Butterflies & skippers

    • Chlosyne nycteis — Silvery Checkerspot

    Other insect & wildlife relationships

    Caterpillars this plant can feed

    Silvery Checkerspot.

    • Flower visits: Butterflies and other insects visit the flowers.
    • Seed: Songbirds, ruffed grouse, quail, mourning doves and small mammals eat the seeds.

    Additional published species records; Illinois insect occurrence is not established by this account. These records do not guarantee that every insect occurs at your planting site.

    Show / hide ▾Frequently asked questions

    What are the ideal growing conditions for Woodland Sunflower?
    Light: Full to partial sun. Soil moisture: Moist to dry-mesic.

    Is Woodland Sunflower deer and herbivore resistant?
    White-tailed deer sometimes remove upper stems and leaves. Even plants described as resistant may be browsed. Use physical protection where deer damage is a concern.

    When should I expect Woodland Sunflower to bloom?
    Typical flowering period: Mid-summer to early fall. Timing varies with location and weather.

    Show / hide ▾Sources & ecological notes

    Landscape companion selection: Natural Communities compared the growing requirements shown on these species pages with selected source records: Dry-mesic sand prairie — Short Pioneer historical remnant inventory — Chicago region — Grundy County, Illinois. The shortlist is a planting-design inference. A shared record does not establish adjacency, identical soil requirements, local seed origin, or a tested planting combination. Regional synthesis records retain their documented focal-to-associate scope.

    Native range & ecological ratings: Flora of the Chicago Region (2017), via Universal FQA; USACE Chicago FQA (2017); Kew WCVP / Plants of the World Online.

    Growing conditions & other references: Illinois Wildflowers, John Hilty; NC State Extension Plant Toolbox.

    Wildlife records: Shropshire & Tallamy: caterpillar hosts (2025); Smith et al.: pollen-host records (2025).

    Native range does not identify the origin of the seed or plants offered. Community and wildlife records apply to the locations and conditions described.

    Research notes & credits

    USACE/ERDC fqadata — Chicago Region FQA 2017. Herman, B., Sliwinski, R. & Whitaker, S. (2017), Chicago Region FQA Calculator; distributed by USACE/ERDC in fqadata under CC0. Values may differ from Flora of the Chicago Region (2017). CC0 dedication.

    Range data: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; 4 June 2026 release, accessed 7 September 2026. © The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. CC BY 3.0; selected and reformatted. Kew cannot warrant the quality or accuracy of these data. This use has no Kew endorsement.

    Caterpillar host records: Shropshire, K.J. & Tallamy, D.W. (2025), Lepidoptera of North America, Supplement 1. Contains information from this database made available under the Open Database License (ODbL 1.0). Natural Communities selected species-level records and screened source qualifications. The complete selection and transformation instructions for this page are available below under the same license.

    Smith et al. (2025) — pollen-host literature dataset. Smith, C., Bachelder, N., Russell, A.L., Morales, V., Mosher, A.R. & Seltmann, K.C. (2025), Oecologia 207:13, DOI 10.1007/s00442-024-05653-5. Data release 14757220, CC BY 4.0; selected genus-level pollen-host records from russell_formatted-15Aug2024.csv summarized. Family records and model predictions excluded; no endorsement implied. CC BY 4.0.

    Flora rating attribution: Kenneth Johnson (2018), Flora of the Chicago Region UFQA Database, following Gerould Wilhelm and Laura Rericha (2017), Flora of the Chicago Region: A Floristic and Ecological Synthesis. Individual rating facts are presented with original commentary; the calculator’s software license is not treated as a license for the underlying Flora publication.

    Caterpillar research records

    Plant: Helianthus divaricatus

    Record scope: Host literature synthesis; no county nativity or local insect occurrence inferred.

    Shropshire & Tallamy (2025) · Original research dataset · Reuse license: ODbL-1.0

    Plant names in the source Source insect record IDs
    Helianthus divaricatus 202913

    How these records were selected

    To reproduce this selection, use the “UDELep May 2025” worksheet in the original research dataset.

    1. Match the insect record IDs above to column A (UDLepID). Within each table row, pair every listed insect ID with every listed source plant name.
    2. Use the first two words in column H for the insect’s scientific name, column E for its common name, and column AB for its source category.
    3. Treat the selected pairs as reported caterpillar host records. Keep all other source fields unchanged and outside this selected table. Include no other rows or host pairs.
    4. Group butterflies and skippers together, and the other categories as moths. Retain the source’s exotic-category labels and sort display names by scientific insect name.

    Historical county and community record: Phillippe, Marcum, Busemeyer & Ebinger (2010), p. 8, reporting the 1976 inventory, with IDNR remnant-site context. The original 1976 survey was not examined. Remnant origin is inferred from the historical prairie record; modern seeded areas are not used as evidence. Later restoration history is documented separately. Only selected factual records are reused; no open license is claimed for the paper.

    Growing guidance: Illinois Extension — Keeping deer out of the yard and garden. Selected facts in original wording. General deer advice is not a species resistance rating.

    Plant Shipping & Care

    We want to ensure that our customers get what they want, a native backyard oasis. To do that, we need to follow a few simple guidelines and give you some information and pointers to make sure you get your plants delivered in a healthy state.

    As a reminder, you will receive an email to confirm your pickup or shipping window just before the plants are ready. See Order Fulfillment below for seasonal fulfillment windows.

     

    Choices to Receive Your Plants & Accessories

    • Website orders: Seed, plugs and bare-root plants offered for shipping are shipped to your address. Shipping charges are calculated at checkout.
    • Container trees and shrubs: Some #3 and #5 container options are offered for scheduled pickup only. Check the selected product option and the cart pickup instructions before ordering. Pickup and shipped items require separate orders where indicated in the cart.
    • Wholesale orders: Delivery and pickup are arranged separately according to the order, supplier yard and location. Wholesale pickup is free.
    • Pickup locations and dates are confirmed by email. Please wait for confirmation before traveling to a pickup site. Our offices are not retail stores or nursery pickup locations.

     

    Order Fulfilment - When Your Plants or Other Items Will Be Ready

    We take orders all year long and seed is shipped all year, but we only provide the plants to you in certain fulfillment windows to ensure healthy plants.

    Wholesale Orders

    • Shipped or are Ready For Pick Up As Requested.

     

    Retail & Website Orders

    • Seed Typically Ships Out Within One Week Of Order All Year Long
    • Typically, single species flats ship when ready, sometimes as soon as early to mid-April (depends on weather) through early-October.
    • Mixed species kits are batched and shipped as indicated on the product page.
    • If a plant order is placed while outside of the plant fulfillment window your plants will be reserved through your payment, however, the order will not be fulfilled and shipped until the following spring. We don't want to provide you plants when they won't be happy during the cold winter months. 
    • Early in the spring and later in the fall certain species may be dormant or partially dormant with brown leaves, however they will return to grow healthy next growing season.
    • Your order may arrive in several different shipments.
    • If certain plants within an order will not be available until a later date, we may choose to hold the full order until all are ready.  In certain circumstances, we may choose to send them in two separate shipments 
    • Fulfillment is always dependent upon plant availability.  We try our best but sometimes plants do not overwinter well and perish.  If a plant is on back order you will receive an email indicating the estimated shipping date.  If we can not provide the plant we will first notify you and give you an option of substitution or a refund of that individual species.
    • Plants are typically only packaged and shipped on Mondays to ensure they do not sit in the harsh delivery facility for extended periods of time over the weekend. You will receive a confirmation email once your delivery has been shipped and to estimate your delivery date.
    • Apparel & accessories are ready typically within one to two weeks. See product page for holiday shipping.

    Where We Ship

     

     

          What to Expect When Receiving Your Delivery

          • Your plants will be packaged with the utmost care
          • We will need to cut back certain plants prior to shipping. This seems counter-intuitive, however, the fewer leaves the less water the plants can lose during shipping, resulting in healthier plants for you. This also enables the plants to fit within the protective packaging and shipped safely.

           

             Shipments

            • Larger plant shipments will look similar to the picture below with a tray of your plants and a cardboard box to protect them during shipping.

             

             

            What to Do With Your Plants After  Receiving Your Delivery

            • Unpack your order IMMEDIATELY
            • Inspect for damage and report any issues immediately to Natives@NaturalCommunities.net
            • Water your plants
            • Install your plants as quickly as possible and water the entire garden area thoroughly
            • If you cannot install your plants immediately
              • Some plants may not be in a container, put them into some kind of a container such as a paper cup with loose soil until installation
              • Make sure each plant is receiving the appropriate amount of light.
              • Continue to water daily each morning and possibly again in the afternoon
              • No additional fertilizer is needed
            How to install native plugs
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