Helianthus nuttallii parishii (A.Gray) Heiser (1955:316)

Los Angeles sunflower

Taxonomy & Nomenclature

Synonyms: Helianthus parishii A.Gray in Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 19: 7 (1883); Helianthus californicus var. parishii (A.Gray) Jeps. in Man. Fl. Pl. Calif.: 1077 (1925); Helianthus oliveri A.Gray in Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 20: 299 (1885); Helianthus parishii f. oliveri (A.Gray) Cockerell in Torreya 18: 181 (1918)

Conservation Status

Extinct (Rejmánek, 2018; Knapp et al., 2020, 2021; POWO, 2024; Christenhusz & Govaerts, 2025; NatureServe, 2026)

Last record (disputed): 1920 (Ripley, 1975:40); 1937 (Smith & York, 1984:2; Rejmánek, 2018; Knapp et al., 2021; Christenhusz & Govaerts, 2025)

Table 1. Conservation status (historically).

Distribution

Los Angeles area, California, USA

Biology & Ecology

Hypodigm

Media

References

Baldwin, B. B., Goldman, D. H., Keil, D. J., Patterson, R., Rosatti, T. and Wilken, D. (2012). The Jepson Manual, Vascular Plants of California second edition. Univ. California Press. 1568 pp.

Christenhusz, Maarten J. M. and Govaerts, Rafaël. (2023). Uitgestorven. Op plantenjacht rond de wereld: 1-511. Sterck & De Vreese.

Christenhusz, Maarten J. M. and Govaerts, Rafaël. (2025). Plant extinction in the Anthropocene. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 207(3): 183-196. https://doi.org/10.1093/botlinnean/boae045 [Appendix S1]

Hickman, J. C. (1993). The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California. University of California Press. 1424 pp.

Kartesz, J. T. (1994). A synonymized checklist of the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland. 2nd edition. 2 vols. Timber Press, Portland, OR.

Keil, D. J. and Elvin, M. A. (2010). Helianthus inexpectatus (Asteraceae), a tetraploid perennial new species from southern California. Aliso 28: 59-62.

Knapp, Wesley M., Frances, Anne, Noss, Reed, Naczi, Robert F. C., Weakley, Alan, Gann, George D., Baldwin, Bruce G., Miller, James, McIntyre, Patrick, Mishler, Brent D., Moore, Gerry, Olmstead, Richard G., Strong, Anna, Gluesenkamp, Daniel and Kennedy, Kathryn. (2020). Regional records improve data quality in determining plant extinction rates. Nature Ecology & Evolution 4: 512-514. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1146-1

Knapp, Wesley M., Frances, Anne, Noss, Reed, Naczi, Robert F. C., Weakley, Alan, Gann, George D., Baldwin, Bruce G., Miller, James, McIntyre, Patrick, Mishler, Brent D., Moore, Gerry, Olmstead, Richard G., Strong, Anna, Kennedy, Kathryn, Heidel, Bonnie and Gluesenkamp, Daniel. (2021). Vascular plant extinction in the continental United States and Canada. Conservation Biology 35(1): 360-368. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13621 [Supporting Information (Appendix S1)]

Munz, P. and Keck, D. (1963). A California Flora. University of California Press. 1681 pp.

NatureServe. (2026). Helianthus nuttallii ssp. parishii: Los Angeles Sunflower. NatureServe Network Biodiversity Location Data accessed through NatureServe Explorer [web application]. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia. Available at: https://explorer.natureserve.org/ [Accessed on 19 September 2026]

POWO. (2024). Plants of the World Online (online resource). Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. Available at: https://powo.science.kew.org/ [Accessed 15 May 2024]

Rejmánek, Marcel. (2018). Vascular plant extinctions in California: A critical assessment. Diversity and Distributions 24(1): 129-136. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12665

Roskov Y. et al. (eds.). (2018). Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life Naturalis, Leiden, the Netherlands.

Schilling, E. E. (2006). Helianthus, pp. 141-169 In: Flora of North America Editorial Committee (FNA). Flora of North America north of Mexico. Vol. 21. Magnoliophyta: Asteridae, part 8: Asteraceae, part 3. Oxford Univ. Press, New York. xxii + 616 pp.

Smith, James Payne, Jnr. (ed.) and York, Richard (DEM). (1984). Inventory of rare and endangered vascular plants of California. Special Publication No. 1 (3rd edition). Berkeley, California: California Native Plant Society. xviii + 174 pp.

Walter, Kerry S. and Gillett, Harriet J. (eds.). (1998). 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants. Compiled by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Gland, Switzerland & Cambridge, UK: IUCN – The World Conservation Union. lxiv + 862 pp.

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