The Sunny Sunflower

The sunflower has a bright, cheery face (and tasty seeds).  In addition to being beautiful, the sunflower is also a very important agricultural crop in the northern part of North Dakota and the panhandle of Texas.  But where did the sunflower originate, and why do we love it so much?  Here’s a bit of history about the sunflower.

The sunflower, or Helianthus Annuus as it’s scientifically called, is native to North America, but it was actually commercialized in Russia.  After being cultivated as a crop flower, it was reintroduced to the U.S.  However, Native Americans had been growing domesticated sunflowers for years.  They started cultivating the flower in what is now New Mexico and Arizona back in 3000 BC.  In fact, some evidence shows that they may have grew sunflowers before they grew corn!  The seeds of the sunflower were ground into flour, plus it can be mixed with other vegetables for different tastes.  The seeds, of course, were eaten as snacks.

In addition to eating, the sunflower was also used for a few other things.  It can be made into purple dye for different decorative purposes.  Some parts of the sunflower can also be used as medications for snakebites and other ailments. 

When the Spanish explorers came to the area, they found the sunflower fascinating, and they took it back to Europe in the 1500s.  There, it was developed as both decorative and medicinal.  Peter the Great was especially fond of the flower.  Eventually, the Russians were growing more than two million acres of sunflowers!  By 1880, these new sunflowers were re-introduced to the U.S. 

Now that sunflowers are grown around the world, they’ve become very popular.  Many people love seeing their big, yellow faces in the morning.  Here are a few interesting facts about the sunflower:

The cultivated sunflower has one head, but wild sunflowers can have up to 20 or more.

Sunflower oil has more Vitamin E in it than any other vegetable oil.

Most sunflowers grown for commercial use in the United States are grown in eight states—California, Texas, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, and North and South Dakota.

The largest producer of sunflowers is Russia, although Argentina, China, India, Turkey, and South Africa also grow a large amount of the flower.

Kansas is called the Sunflower State because of the many wild sunflowers that grow there.  In fact, it’s actually considered a weed by some!

Many great artists have painted sunflowers, including Picasso and Van Gogh.

The tallest sunflower on record was grown in the Netherlands and stood over 25 feet!  A sunflower in Michigan holds the record for the most heads on one plant—it had 837.