Between 100 and 200 seeds of each of seven rare and endangered sunflower species will arrive in Brisbane in the next few weeks as a result of a United States collecting expedition that included a Queensland's Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries plant pathologist.

DPI senior plant pathologist Gary Kong was a member of the expedition in the south-eastern US to collect seed of native sunflowers not represented in national breeding collections.

It is Dr Kong's third sunflower collecting expedition, this one being supported by the Grains Research and Development Corporation and the US Government.

His participation was aimed at providing DPI plant breeders with quick access to new germplasm to work with.

Dr Kong said seed of the rare and endangered species would be grown at the Eagle Farm Quarantine Centre before being released into the DPI sunflower seed collection kept at the Biloela Research Station.

The species would then be planted out in the field for seed multiplication and a continuation of species evaluation that would start while the plants were in quarantine.

"If new sources of disease resistance are identified they will be developed for use in the sunflower breeding program," he said.

"This will lead to better disease resistant varieties, which benefit the environment, growers and the community.

"The sunflower industry will have better varieties for managing disease and high quality edible oil products for consumers.

"Genetic disease management solutions are cost effective and don't have and unlike chemicals don't have an environmental impact."

Dr Kong was invited to accompany United States Department of Agriculture botanist Dr Gerald Seiler and plant pathologist Dr Tom Gulya on their plant exploration expedition.

"The sunflowers we looked for were not held in US storage facilities and so were not available for public research," he said.

"The sites covered a range of environments in Tennessee, north and south Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.

He said expedition members documented species populations in their native environments and also collected varying quantities of seed from each of the target species.

As an expedition member, he had secured seed of the seven species for storage at the Genetic Resource Centre in Biloela after clearances that involved growing one generation at the Eagle Farm Quarantine facility.

"This means Australian researchers and sunflower breeders have access to these new sources of sunflower germplasm immediately, while other international researchers have to wait several years for the seed to be increased."

He said the rare and endangered species would be available for field evaluation towards the end of this year.