Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia)

Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia diversifolia) is a beautiful, quick-growing plant, which helps support food forests easily. 

It can grow up to 2-3 metres in one summer! So it supports young fruit trees by providing shelter very quickly and reducing grass growth underneath.

It inhibits the growth of kaikuyu grass, not only by shading it, but because of the plant's allelopathic affect, and so far it's doing a great job of that in my experience.

It's a soft wood so is very easy to chop and drop to lay under fruit trees, or mulches up easily also and produces huge amounts of biomass.

The leaves and branches are nutrient-rich, with good amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (said to be comparable to be chook poo) and can be used as mulch around the base of other plants to build soil fertility. 

Mexican sunflower also produces gorgeous yellow flowers through winter and early spring which bees and other insects love, providing a nectar source when there's not much else available.

​It does not set viable seed, only grows by root cuttings. Branches can root easily when touching to ground, so give them a good chop each season and be aware of not letting them spread too far.

It grows best in full sun with well-drained soil and is very hardy, though they do not like "wet feet". They are drought-tolerant once established, require little to no fertilization, and are not frost-tolerant, often acting as warm-season annuals. To encourage bushier growth, pinch back the growing tips, and stake the plants to support their brittle stems.