Update on my giant wild sunflower: My sunflower is starting to heavily flower now. I won't know the exact height measurement until I cut it down in a few weeks, but I believe it is within a few inches of 19 feet tall (5.8 meters). My guess would be about 18'10". What is amazing is this is a free-standing plant and has never been staked and is not supported. A free-standing sunflower at this height is an accomplishment. It is nearly a foot taller than its parent. This sunflower is the common annual sunflower that grows wild throughout the United States. I have grown this extremely tall sunflower since about 2006, and have been saving seeds since then. I originally found this variety on the USDA germplasm database. The seeds were collected in an uncultivated roadside ditch in Nebraska in 1991, with plants as tall as 14 to 16 1/2 feet tall. This 19 feet in height is not a one off, as this variety commonly produces extremely tall plants for me. In 2022, I produced a 18'2" wild sunflower, which is also the parent of this year's giant. In 2023, I also grew a similarly tall 17'7" wild sunflower.