Native to North America, sunflowers are the second-most widely grown seed crop in the world, says Modern Farmer, so it’s logical for researchers Laura Marek and Gerald Seiler to scour the country for the hardiest of the wild plants. With climate change forecast to affect agricultural production, “the wild genetic material that breeders need to adapt the crop for future uncertainty is found almost exclusively on our soil,” writes Nelson Harvey in a story produced in partnership with FERN. The prize for Marek, a plant pathologist, and Seiler, a research botanist, during a swing through the arid West was Helianthus anomalus, a wild sunflower that grows in sand dunes.
“Incredibly heat- and drought-tolerant, H. anomalus flowers early in the spring and again come late summer — before and after the worst of the heat — and matures quickly, a trait that could give farmers protection from the killing frosts of late fall,” says Modern Farmer. Marek and Seiler use a portable GPS unit to identify the site where they find H. anomalus and paper sacks to collect some of the seed-filled heads of mature plants, for further research and a USDA seed collection.
In the past 11 years, Marek and Seiler have hunted wild sunflowers from Florida to Oregon. While their work may help farmers cope with climate change, there also is a recognition that a changing climate may imperil wild species. So work is under way to map and identify wild populations that need stronger protection. “As Marek and Seiler know, genetic gold could lurk around any remote corner,” says Modern Farmer.