Charles Bixler Heiser

Controversy over the origin of the domesticated sunflower Heiser and several other ethnobotanists claimed that the domesticated sunflower originated in pre-Columbian North America and not in pre-Columbian Mexico. However, other experts have disputed the claim.

Awards and honors 1967: President of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists 1969: Gleason Award of the New York Botanical Garden 1972: Merit Award of the Botanical Society of America 1974: President of the Society for the Study of Evolution 1978: President of the Society for Economic Botany 1980: President of the Botanical Society of America 1984: Distinguished Economic Botanist Award of the Society for Economic Botany 1985: Pustovoit Award of the International Sunflower Association 1987: Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences 1988: Asa Gray Award of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists 1996: Honorary member of the Instituto de Ciencias Naturales in Ecuador 1997: Distinguished Scholar Award of the New York Botanical Garden 2002: Raven Outreach Award of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists 2004: Garden Globe Award for the book Weeds in my Garden (2003) 2007: Centennial Award of the Botanical Society of America

Selected publications Articles edward eugene Schilling, charles bixler Heiser. 1981. Infrageneric classification of Helianthus (Compositae). publ. International Bureau for Plant Taxonomy and Nomenclature. 11 pp. 1980. Peppers of the Americas: at the National Arboretum. 9 pp. 1961. Morphological and cytological variation in Helianthus petiolaris with notes on related species. publ. Society for the Study of Evolution. 12 pp. 1951. The sunflower among the North American Indians. publ. American Philosophical Soc. 17 pp. 1944. Monograph of psilostrophe. publ. Washington Univ. Books 2003. Weeds in my garden: observations on some misunderstood plants. publ. Timber Press. 247 pp. online (not a guide to weed identification) 1993. The Gourd Book. publ. University of Oklahoma Press. 248 pp. online 1992. Of Plants and People. publ. University of Oklahoma Press. 237 pp. online 1990. Seed to civilization: the story of food. publ. Harvard University Press. 228 pp. 1987. The fascinating world of the nightshades: tobacco, mandrake, potato, tomato, pepper, eggplant, etc. publ. Dover Publ. 200 pp. 1981. The Sunflower. publ. University of Oklahoma Press. 198 pp. 1969. Nightshades: the paradoxical plants. Series of books in biology. publ. W. H. Freeman. 200 pp. 1969. The North American sunflowers (Helianthus), Volume 22, Nº 3 Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club. publ. Club by the Seeman Printery. 218 pp. charles bixler Heiser, carl Sharsmith, kenton lee Chambers, roxana Stinchfield Ferris, john hunter Thomas, ira loren Wiggins, lawrence Beane. 1955. Notes on western North American sunflowers. Volume 4, Part 8 of Contributions from the Dudley Herbarium. 360 pp. 1949. Study in the evolution of the sunflower species Helianthus annuus and H. bolanderi, Volume 23, Nº 4 University of California publications in botany. 52 pp. 1947. Variability and hybridization in the sunflower species Helianthus annuus and H. bolanderi in California. publ. University of California. 254 pp.