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The Sunflower
Native to North America, The Common Sunflower
(Helianthus annuus) is an annual plant with a large daisy-like flower face.
Its scientific name comes from the Greek words helios (“sun”) and anthos (“flower”).
The flowers come in many colors (yellow, red, orange, maroon, brown), but they are commonly bright yellow with brown centers that ripen into heavy heads filled with seeds.
Sunflowers are heliotropic, which means that they turn their flowers to follow the movement of the Sun across the sky east to west, and then returns at night to face the east, ready again for the morning sun.
Heliotropism happens during the earlier stages before the flower grows heavy with seeds.
The Birds and the Bees and the Butterflies too LOVE Them.Squirrels too.
Raw Sunflower Seeds are Nature's natural anti-depressant.
Some people call sunflowers the “fourth sister,” in reference to the Three Sisters:
corn, beans, and squash.
Learn More
Sunflowers were not only used for cooking by Native Americans,
but also for healing (the oil was used to cure skin ailments) and making clothing (yellow dye was made from the flower petals and black or blue dye from the seeds).
Each sunflower’s head is made of smaller flowers.
The petals we see around the outside are called ray florets.
They cannot reproduce but the disc florets in the middle, where the seeds develop, have both male and female sex organs, and each produce a seed.
They can self-pollinate or take pollen blown by the wind or transported by insects.
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