A suffrutescent Helianthus from Los Angeles County, California

A suffrutescent individual, belonging to the genus Helianthus, and bearing resemblance to H. annuus, has been observed in Los Angeles County, California. This individual was observed to woody proximally; not a character of the herbaceous annual sunflower, H. annuus. Photographs of this woody individual and a general herbaceous representative H. annuus are presented in this article. Dr. David J. Keil, an Asteraceae (sunflower family) taxonomist, suggests that a new shrubby species of Helianthus may be present in California, and thus, this suffrutescent individual may be a representative of that woody species. It may also be a woody variety of H. annuus.