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Helianthus niveus

species of plant

Specimen drawers, botanical folios and brass scientific instruments under study light
Science and natureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionOct 2, 2025
Entity authorityQ5704877
Source-derived summary

Helianthus niveus is a species of sunflower known by the common names showy sunflower and snowy sunflower. It is native to northern Mexico (Sonora, Baja California, Baja California Sur) and the Southwestern United States (Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, and West Texas).

Helianthus niveus is a taprooted annual or perennial sunflower growing to a maximum height over 1 m (40 in). The leaves are oval or lance-shaped, often with irregular lobes or teeth, and are covered in soft, white hairs. The flower heads are fringed with 13-21 bright yellow ray florets up to 2.5 cm (1 in) long surrounding a center of yellow to purple-red disc florets.

Habitat

H. niveus grows in sandy soils, most often in sand dunes.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Helianthus niveus” is species of plant. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Helianthus, niveus and species, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewUseful for establishing the present vocabulary of the subject while preserving a route back to the evidence on which that vocabulary rests. The current 119-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Helianthus, niveus and species is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “species of plant” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 2, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q5704877. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.

Critical limits

A general summary may omit uncertainty, sample limits or methodological disagreement that is explicit in the technical record. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Check terminology, classification and the date of the cited evidence. Scientific names and technical consensus can change while older records retain historical value.

Best used for
  • Current terminology
  • Classification context
  • Finding cited technical literature
Verify next

Primary datasets, specimen catalogues, standards bodies and the most recent peer-reviewed literature.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Helianthus niveus”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Helianthus niveus primary sources, Helianthus niveus archive and Helianthus research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Helianthus niveus”?
  2. Has classification or technical consensus changed since the cited source?
  3. Is the terminology current, historical or disputed?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Helianthus niveus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.