Stems pubescent throughout, not glaucous. Leaves petiolate or sessile, but not cordate, and alternate or opposite. Phyllaries acute to attenuate, but not reflexed, subsessile glandular trichomes present or absent; leaf bases usually attenuate to truncate or rounded, the blade lance-linear or lanceolate, or if ovate or lance-ovate either sessile or with a petiole that is at most narrowly winged. Leaves not conduplicate, entire or serrate, triplinerved (with a prominent lateral pair of veins near the base); inflorescence not spiciform or racemose. Phyllaries not conspicuously graduated and imbricate, usually loose or spreading. Leaves sessile or with a short petiole usually < 2 cm long; blades linear to lanceolate, < 4.5 cm broad; cypselas 3-5 cm long; tubers present or absent. Leaves cuneate, gradually narrowing to base, sessile to petiolate. Ligules abaxially with subsessile glandular trichomes ("resin dots"); leaves usually revolute. Heads relatively small, the discs usually < 15 mm across; tubers present.

Helianthus schweinitzii: Torrey & A. Gray, Schweinitz's Sunflower. Pd (NC, SC): clayey soils of woodlands and roadsides, in areas formerly with post oak-blackjack oak savannas, xeric oak-pine woodlands, or "Piedmont prairies," now primarily on mowed road or powerline rights-of-way; rare (US Endangered, NC Endangered, SC Rare). Late August-October. The range is limited to the Piedmont of NC and SC, primarily within 100 km of Charlotte, NC. Some earlier reports (as in Heiser et al. 1969) of occurrences in se. NC, e. SC, and c. SC are based on misidentifications. See Matthews, Barden, & Matthews (1997) for an informative discussion about this species. [= RAB, FNA, K, S, SE]

All text taken fromWeakley's Flora