Helianthus porteri is a species of sunflower known by the common names Porter's sunflower, Stone Mountain daisy[1] and Confederate daisy. The term "daisy" is imprecise because the species is a sunflower (Helianthus) rather than a daisy (Bellis and related genera). Likewise, although the plant grows on Stone Mountain, GA, its range extends well beyond. The connection to the Confederacy is through Stone Mountain which contains a confederate monument, although the connection is tenuous as the species was named before the Civil War in 1849 by Harvard botanist Asa Gray in honor of Thomas Conrad Porter, a Pennsylvanian minister and botanist who collected the plant in Georgia.[2] Gray initially named the plant Rudbeckia porteri,[3] later changed to Helianthus in 1998 by John F. Pruski.[4]
The species is native to the southeastern United States, including Alabama and Georgia, but has been introduced to granite outcrop areas in North Carolina as an aggressive weed.[5] [6] Helianthus porteri grows on thin soils on and around flat rock granite and gneiss outcrops.[7] It is an annual herb up to 100 cm (40 inches) tall. One plant usually produces 5 or more flower heads, each containing 7 or 8 yellow ray florets surrounding 30 or more yellow disc florets.[8] [9]
