Helianthus niveus (snowy sunflower) (girasol)

This true sunflower grows only in sand dunes, swales, and roadsides adjacent to them. It can develop into four-foot-tall, many-branched plants, or produce six-inch miniatures and mature at either size. Snowy sunflowers can germinate when there are rains in winter or late summer, flowering either from February through May or in November. Enduring tremendous heat, this desert herb is more efficient at using water than giant sunflowers or any of their relatives. Plant breeders are using it to increase the drought and temperature tolerance, oil seed quality, and insect resistance of cultivated sunflowers. It is pollinated by a wide variety of bees, and other insects. "Arizona Highways Presents Desert Wildflowers, 1988".

Algodones Dunes sunflower is an attractive dune plant known in California only from these dunes. This silver-leafed member of the sunflower family inhabits the interior portions of the dunes at the bases along the sides of large dunes. It grows to more than 2 feet in height which is taller than its cousin Helianthus niveus subsp. canescens- widespread on dunes and low sandy places across the Sonoran Desert. Extremely tolerant of moving sand. Algodones Dunes sunflower grows rapidly to avoid being buried. Interestingly, this sunflower has two distinct seasons of flowering-one from March to May and another from October to January- when it produces bright yellow daisy-like flower heads. It has a CNPS Rare Plant Rank 1B: rare, threatened, or endangered in California and elsewhere. "California Desert Plants, Philip W Rundel, Robert J Gustafson, Michael E Kauffmann."