WHERE’S WILDLIFE • WILDFLOWER FIELD GUIDE

Jerusalem Artichoke

Helianthus tuberosus

Pronunciation: heel-ee-AN-thus too-ber-OH-sus

A tall, colony-forming native sunflower with golden heads, rough stems, and broad leaves. Also called Sunchoke or Sunroot, Jerusalem Artichoke stores energy in underground tubers.

Flowering Jerusalem Artichoke along a woodland edge.

NATIVE • NORTH AMERICA

At a glance

Family Asteraceae · aster family
Genus Helianthus
Life cycle Perennial
Height Often 6–10 feet
Bloom Late summer into fall
Flower color Yellow rays and yellow disk florets
Habitat Open edges, fields, roadsides, and stream margins
Other names Sunchoke, Sunroot

Sightings map

Observation maps show reported sightings, including planted or escaped populations. They do not define the native range.

Field photographs

12 field photographs show the flowers, broad foliage, hairy stems, and growth habit. Select a photograph to enlarge it.

How to recognize it

Start with the whole plant. Look for a tall perennial with branching near the top and several yellow flower heads.

Check the leaves and stalks. Broad, rough, toothed leaves have three prominent veins near the base. The blade narrows into a distinct, often winged leaf stalk. Lower leaves are commonly opposite; upper leaves become alternate.

Look closely at the stem. Stiff hairs give it a rough surface. Stems can be green or reddish, so color alone is not diagnostic.

Use several features together. Narrow, pointed green bracts surround the underside of each head. Underground tubers are an additional character, but are not shown in these photographs. A flower-only view cannot reliably separate all perennial sunflowers.

Where and when to look

Look along sunny woodland margins, field edges, roadsides, and stream banks. Plants grow in full sun or partial shade and often form substantial patches where rhizomes can spread.

In the Midwest, the yellow heads are especially noticeable in late summer and early fall. Photograph a whole stem, a lower leaf with its stalk, the stem hairs, and the underside of a flower head for the most useful identification record.

Range & sightings

A North American species now widely distributed through cultivation and escape. Its long history as a food plant complicates the boundary between original and introduced populations. Local occurrence alone does not establish whether a particular patch is wild or planted.

One head, many small flowers

The apparent petals are individual ray florets surrounding many small tubular disk florets. Both are yellow, although developing fruits and aging florets can darken the center.

Head shape and ray number vary. Combine the flower with leaf width, leaf-stalk length, stem hairs, and the bracts behind the head.

Compare similar sunflowers

Sawtooth Sunflower generally has a smooth, often whitish stem and longer, narrower leaves. Jerusalem Artichoke has rough-hairy stems and broad leaves on conspicuous stalks.

Giant Sunflower also has hairy stems, but its leaves are generally narrower and have much shorter stalks.

Perennial sunflowers can hybridize. Compare leaves, petioles, stems, and head bracts together.

A late-season gathering place

Flowering heads provide pollen and nectar for visiting insects, while mature seeds feed birds. The close-up also shows a small spider using a flower head as a perch.

Below ground, rhizomes and tubers allow an established plant to return and expand into a colony.

The name points underground

Helianthus combines Greek words for sun and flower. Tuberosus refers to the tubers. Jerusalem Artichoke is a sunflower; it is not the globe artichoke.

Sources & further reading

NC State Extension: Jerusalem Artichoke
Native Plant Trust: sunflower identification key
UW–Eau Claire: Jerusalem Artichoke identification notes
University of Iowa: Jerusalem Artichoke

Keep learning

Compare other sunflowers in the guide, then practice recognizing wildflowers in the quiz.

Jerusalem Artichoke