UPDATE: Last season TR made us aware of this wonderful helianthus and so I picked up a few of these plants this year. He later commented in another thread that SD has grown very large for him. Well given my limited space I was concerned but corresponding with the 'developer' of this perennial he did say that it can be successfully cut back significantly in June to get a much more reduced overall size (with of course blooms occurring much later). I am thinking that this particular specimen in my garden is a bit what he is describing. It is now coming into bloom at about 2 feet in height. It isnt a problem that it is flowering so late as I need more Autumn color.

Congratulations, I'm jealous! :) They could be painted ladies, silvery checkerspots, gorgone checkerspots or possibly bordered patches - does that narrow it down enough? :) Susan and several other butterflyers in Oklahoma and Texas have raised some of these cats on their sunflowers and such - they'll see this and post. MissSherry

Heliopsys (false sunflower)has opposite leaves, Helianthus (sunflower) has alternate leaves.

Well, I kept forgetting to bring my camera with me, and this morning as I was passing by all these plantings of this flower, I was kicking myself (not easy to do while driving, lol!) So, I took a walk down the street to take some pictures of the clump there. And then I spent an hour uploading them to Webshots. Phew! Not only did they change their entire site, but they gave my album a STUPID name (My Public Shoebox??!!), which ticked me off on principle, lol, and then I spent a half hour trying to rename/edit/delete the darn album. Finally gave up and just re-uploaded into another album (but I still can't delete the shoebox!) Anyway, here are two photos of my helianthus microcephalus, and two of the roadside plant. The funny thing is, after getting a close-up look at the roadside plant, I think I like my helianthus better after all, lol! The roadside plants always seemed (at least in passing by them in the car) so much bigger, brighter, and deeper yellow. Really eye-catching. My hel. seemed pale, tiny, and quite frankly, kind of dull. But when I saw the roadside plant close-up, I just didn't like it as much as my helianthus. I guess the difference is in overall impact versus individual bloom. I still would prefer the larger blooms, but I guess there are so many variations on this plant that I could find one to fit all criteria. Anyway, enough babbling. Here are the photos. Maybe someone can put a positive ID on the roadside one. Thanks for all the input here! :) Dee Here is a link that might be useful: roadside vs. helianthus