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Asteraceae family

New Mexico Sunflower Helianthus praetermissus

Native Specialist-bee host

New Mexico Sunflower is a perennial wildflower native to the lower 48 states. A host for pollen-specialist native bees.

More about this plant

Helianthus praetermissus is a rare and probably extinct North American species of sunflower, with the common names New Mexico sunflower and lost sunflower. It is known from only one specimen collected in 1851 in Cibola County in western New Mexico, and not seen since. Wikipedia →

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
Hardiness
≥ zone 8 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Lifespan
Perennial
In the garden
Herb layer — Sits in the herb of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts ~75 caterpillar species

Helianthus supports ~75 caterpillar species.

Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a strong genus.

Recorded feeding on Helianthus in North America, including:

Adaina cinerascens · plume moth Adaina montana · plume moth Aethes straminoides · leafroller moth Aglais milberti · Milbert's Tortoiseshell Agrotis ipsilon · Dark Sword-Grass Agrotis orthogonia · Pale Western Cutworm
+ 8 more species →
Asymmetrura matutella Autographa californica · Alfalfa Looper Moth Autographa flagellum · owlet moth Autographa precationis · Common Looper Bucculatrix fusicola · ribbed cocoon-maker moth Bucculatrix illecebrosa · ribbed cocoon-maker moth Bucculatrix longula · ribbed cocoon-maker moth Bucculatrix needhami · ribbed cocoon-maker moth
Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).
✦ Bees specialist-bee host

Specialist native bees depend on it.

Some native bees are pollen specialists (oligolectic) — they raise young only on pollen from particular plant genera. Helianthus is a recorded specialist-bee host, so losing it can mean losing the bee that relies on it.

Xerces pollinator conservation →
Specialist hosts from Smith et al. 2024.
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
Sources for this entry (10) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — native status
[06] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
[07] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts · Smith et al. 2024 (CC BY)
[08] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[09] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[10] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
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PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

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