Georgia Wildlife Federation

Resources < Wildlife Habitats < Guide to Native Plants of Georgia for Wildlife < Helianthus angustifolius

Swamp Sunflower is a plant that likes to wait. It wakes up sluggishly in spring. It creeps along during summer, getting steadily taller. Then, when late summer and fall roll around, this late bloomer unfurls a spectacular display of golden fireworks. Glorious and profuse mini-sunflower blossoms explode outward and completely cover this magnificent plant from any viewing angle. Like all sunflowers, they actually move to follow the sun like miniature solar panels. In the fall, this plant is an absolute delight for insect life of all types and comes into bloom just as summer-blooming plants like Coneflowers are winding down. Swamp Sunflower is the last breath of the year’s growing season, before the frosty transition to winter.

Despite Swamp Sunflower’s preference for moist soils, it is surprisingly drought-tolerant. It will not only tolerate, but thrive in and colonize drier soils. It may even spread too aggressively, a quality that makes it great for naturalizing but less than desirable for smaller gardens. It makes an excellent companion to other plants in the Sunflower family, like Pale and Purple Coneflower, Rudbeckia, Jerusalem Artichoke, and the common garden Sunflower.

Family: Asteraceae (Sunflower/Aster/Daisy)

Description: Swamp Sunflower is a large herbaceous perennial. Stems are multi-branched and rough. Leaves are scabrous (rough and sandpapery), 3-6” long, ½” wide, and dark green, with occasional purple tinges. Showy golden yellow flowers 2-3” in diameter are borne from September to October. Rays are golden yellow, while discs are reddish brown to purple. Seeds are small, dry brown achenes.

Size: 6 to 8 feet tall, spreads widely by rhizomes

Habit: Large, fall-blooming herbaceous perennial

Planting and Care: A site with as full sun as possible promotes the most attractive specimen by increasing bloom yield and compactness. Growth is most substantial in moist soil. It is easy to contain the plant by division of the root mass.

Ornamental Value: Swamp Sunflower’s asset is the profusion of golden-yellow blooms with a dark center. They fulfill an important niche in bloom time during fall, after many popular summer plants have finished flowering.

Landscape Use: Swamp Sunflower looks attractive in containers, rock gardens, bog gardens, near ponds or creeks, in wet spots, in wildflower gardens, as a mass planting, or in a border. It is also fairly drought tolerant once established.

Wildlife Benefits: Swamp Sunflower is a foliar host for the caterpillars of the Gorgone Checkerspot, Painted Lady, and Silvery Checkerspot. The Painted Lady is an especially attractive visitor to invite, with amazing arrays of colors on both sides of the wings. Swallowtails, fritillaries, bees, and a great many other nectar- and pollen-seeking insects feed at the flowers during September and October. The seeds are eaten by goldfinches. It is rarely browsed by mammals.

Native Habitat: Native to moist, sunny or partly shady locations throughout much of the eastern U.S. from New York south to Florida, west to Texas, and north to the Ohio River valley. It grows in swamps, wet pinelands, coastal salt marshes and moist disturbed sites and is often common along roadside ditches and fence lines.