With two-inch brown-centered blossoms, dune sunflowers brighten Gulfshore beaches year-round. Unlike their Kansas cousins, they have sprawling, dune-hugging stems that generally reach no more than 18 inches tall, enabling them to cope with constant sea breezes. The rough leaves and stems have a hair-like covering that diffuses the intensity of sunlight, shielding them from overheating and thwarting ants that would prey on seeds.

A native seashore plant from the Carolinas to Texas, dune sunflowers are also cultivated. This annual makes a great ground cover that readily reseeds and tolerates salt spray and drought while forming clusters dense enough to preclude weedy competition. In the dunes, they often provide protection for downy seabird chicks, and both wild and cultivated varieties are year-round magnets for butterflies.

-Jerome A. Jackson, Florida Gulf Coast University