Eighty-four populations of wild sunflowerwere collected from the Great Lakes Region ofthe United States. Tvelve diferent species are represented in the populations.Heliantus tuberosus was represented by 13 accessions and H. giganteus by 10 acessions, significantly increasing the number of accessions of in H. giganteus in the collection. Additional accessions, of H. divaricatus, H. decapetalus, H. mollis and H. hirsutus were also collected. The addition of these populations to the wild sunflower germplasm collection will greatly increase the available genetic variability for improvement of cultivated sunflower. Future collection explorations are planned for Canada and Mexico with the goal of preserving significant portionstf the natural genetic diversity of wild sunfiowers.