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  What do "small," "medium" and "large" numbers mean?
They refer to how many insects were collected per meter square in a 30 second sample. Small means less than 2 insects; medium indicates 2 to 10 insects, and large suggests greater than 10 insects.

home> native plant fact sheets> paleleaf woodland sunflower

Enhancing Beneficial Insects with Native Plants
Paleleaf woodland sunflower
 Helianthus strumosus L.

Group: Dicot
Family: Asteraceae (aster)
Growth Habit: Forb/herb
Duration: Perennial
U.S. Nativity: Native, most of eastern U.S.

Natural Enemies Attracted: Large numbers of Chalcidoidea. Medium numbers of Cantharidae, Orius insidiosus, and Thomisidae. Small numbers of Bombyliidae, Plagiognathus politus, Coccinellidae and Braconidae.

Pests Attracted: Medium numbers of leaf beetles. Small numbers of lygus bugs, thrips and leafhoppers.

Bees attracted: Moderate numbers (between 1-5 bees per meter square in a 30 second sample) of bees including Andrenid bees, sweat bees, digger bees, and bumble bees.
Species Notes: Bright yellow sunflowers about 4 inches wide bloom on plants that grow 3-6 ft tall. Plants filled in readily in the second year of growth, and bloomed throughout August into early September. This species was the ninth most attractive to natural enemies in the late season, with three times more natural enemies than the grass control.
About the Plant Species Graph: Average number of beneficial insects collected at each plant species the week before, during, and after peak bloom, for plant species blooming from mid-August through early October (+ standard error). Pale-leaved sunflower (Helianthus strumosus) boxed in red. Bars for natural enemies are in green, bars for bees are in yellow. Bars for native plants are solid and nonnative plants are striped. The black line on the top graph shows the number of natural enemies in grass with no flowering plants (grass control). Plants are listed in order of peak bloom. graph
Habitat: Includes full sun to partial sun and mid-range soil moisture (neither very wet nor very dry). Naturally occurring in a diverse range of habitats, including dry sandy ground such as oak woods and along river banks, in fields, roadsides, clearings and prairies.

Cultivation and Management: Can be grown from seed (flowers in third year) or plug material (flowers in second year). This species suckers year by year to fill in large areas, and may become weedy in perennial cropping systems. Seeds attract birds.

Availability: Species is available as seed, plug or container grown material from various native plant nurseries. Michigan Native Plant Producers Association

For more information:USDA-NRCS PLANTS database
This fact sheet prepared by: Doug Landis, Anna Fiedler, Department of Entomology, Michigan State University. Please note: The information presented at this web site should be considered a guideline to be adapted for your situation. MSU makes no warranty about the use of the information presented here. Read disclaimer.
Web site information prepared by: Doug Landis, Anna Fiedler, Rufus Isaacs and Julianna Tuell, Department of Entomology, Michigan State University. Funding support: USDA SARE with Project GREEEN, the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, MSU Extension, and the MSU IPM Program.
Web developer: J.N. Landis, MSU IPM Program. Updated: 11/21/06