Sunflower Secrets

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Posted by @Sharon on
Amazing blooms, those sunflowers have, and behind every huge golden petaled, chocolate-centered face, there hides a world of secrets. Their seeds are filled with nutrition, their young faces follow the sun, and their petals, seeds, and hulls provide both yellow and a dark purple dye. But that's not all: Sunflowers are the globetrotters of the plant world.

They were sitting side by side at the dining table, sharing an open newspaper. I scrunched myself up and squeezed my way between them. I was only 7 that chilly March day and I had very good reason to remain unnoticed, but when I glanced down at the newspaper, the words just fell right out of my mouth.

"Oh, would you look at that!" I said. Loud. Too loud, my mind told me. Fast as lightning I clenched my teeth, clamped my lips, and inched forward until my entire upper body was leaning over the picture in the newspaper, trying so hard to hide. Granny Ninna was on my left and Aunt Bett was on my right. It was a page of ads I saw, and right there in front of me was the picture of a giant flower towering over the little girl standing beneath it. The words read: "Ferry-Morse Russian Mammoth Sunflowers," and beneath the picture were the words "Seeds 10 cents." I had 10 cents of my very own and I desperately needed those giant Russian Mammoth Sunflowers so I could stand beneath them. I could read pretty well by then, but I had no concept of geography, so with my hand now covering my mouth, I asked them in a whisper whether Russian Mammoth was very far away.

"Them sunflower seeds can be ordered, child, but why on earth are you whisperin'," Aunt Bett answered in her normal voice.

"I've been banded from the Grit newspaper, Aunt Bett, but it wasn't my fault, it was those two headed turtles that got me banded," I answered, still in a whisper because my mother was somewhere in the house. I glanced at Ninna just in time to see her hide a smile and I thought I might ought to better explain the whole serious situation.

Whispering again, I said, "See, I read the page 'bout Stranger than Fiction and it mentioned a two headed turtle and I musta had screaming nightmares 'bout that turtle 'cause Mom said I woke up the whole house a few times. So I'm banded from Grit newspapers till I grow up and quit dreamin' out loud, but I really need those big flowers."

Sometimes I think that must have been the world's first banning of a newspaper from a child, but it led to my lifelong love affair with sunflowers. And who doesn't love them, those glorious golden faces that mysteriously follow the sun? So who took the first bite of sunflower seeds and declared them tasty? It was our own Native Americans, because in spite of having traveled the world, sunflowers are native to North America, specifically to the mid-western states.


Helianthus Annuus

Let's talk about their world travels. History tells us that it was our Native Americans who first cultivated the sunflower in the areas of what would become Arizona and New Mexico thousands of years ago. It seems they might have cultivated it even before they domesticated corn. From the sunflower, they got flour from grinding the seeds, oil from pressing them, dyes from the petals as well as the seeds and hulls, a drink much like coffee from boiling the hulls, a nutritional snack from the seeds, and building material from the tall straight stalks. They burned them for fuel as well.
Thumb of 2014-10-09/Sharon/3d6133 Thumb of 2014-10-09/Sharon/7e3d20 Thumb of 2014-10-09/Sharon/99e277


Eventually, when explorers from Spain came to the area in the 1500s, they happily took sunflower seeds back to Europe, sharing them as they traveled. Soon the oil was in high demand and a patent was granted to the English for the production of sunflower oil. From there, the globetrotting sunflowers made their way to Russia. Much of the credit for cultivating the plant even more goes to Peter the Great in the 18th century, and soon the manufacture of sunflower oil was done on a large commercial scale.

By the late 19th century, the sunflowers packed their bags and came back home to North America, where the seeds were then offered in catalogs as Mammoth Russian or Russian Mammoth, depending on the company that offered them. In the United States their first offering was as silage food for poultry, but in the mid 1920s the Missouri Sunflower Growers Association began to process the seed into oil. At about the same time, Canada began raising sunflowers on a large scale, too, and the sunflowers settled right in with our northern neighbor, while all the time sunflower acreage increased in the US. By the 70s the seed was well hybridized and provided additional yield and disease resistance.

You'd think by then the sunflowers would have settled happily right back in North America, but no. They bounced back and forth internationally, keeping up with supply and demand. Sometimes the U.S. could supply all that was needed, but often the U.S. accepted help from other countries to accommodate the demand. More recently, sunflowers and all the business accommodations they need are mostly provided right here in the U.S., finally back home where it all began.

Today, aside from their giant beauty, they also serve a purpose. The oil is often added to paint and varnishes due to the quick drying ability. It's also found in detergents and soaps and is being tested to be used in plastics as well as organic pesticides. The sunflower seed has great nutritional value as well. It's low in cholesterol and sodium, high in protein and potassium, and provides numerous vitamins and minerals. Amazing, this plant that originated in the United States, and modest too, with all the secrets it's held all these years.

Sunflowers come now in a wide variety of colors and heights, and from the smallest to the largest, they are truly easy to grow. They need full sun and it's best to sow them directly into your garden once your days and nights are no colder than 50 F. They'll grow much bigger if you don't start them in pots. Plant the seeds of the biggest sunflowers about 20 inches apart. If they are planted too close together, when grown, their heads won't have room to turn and grow. And the turning to follow the sun? Well, that's another little secret of sunflowers. They turn their heads to follow the sun while they are growing. This is called "heliotropism" and it strengthens the neck of the sunflower so that the stalk is strong enough to hold the heavy weight of those large ripe seeds it produces.

Amazing, those sunflowers!

Thumb of 2014-10-09/Sharon/f9e609


I was so happy with the sunflowers that summer, I don't even remember whether my mother ever unbanned me from Grit. The seeds came just in time for planting, and after much discussion with Ninna, she told me I was old enough to plant those seeds all by myself. The little one-lane dirt road in front of my house went from east to west, and I planted the sunflowers along the fence row that ran beside the road. Every summer morning I would stand on my front porch and look across the road. Those gigantic Russian Mammoth sunflowers were turned toward me with their bright yellow faces mirroring the sun. Those same faces seemed to follow me wherever I wandered throughout the day, and when evening came they turned away to face the setting sun. How did they do that, I wondered, and when I asked Aunt Bett, she simply said, "They're watchin' over you, chile, they're jus' watchin' over you."
~~*~~


Thanks to rocklady for the final 4 images within the article.

 
Comments and Discussion
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Diane Strain Sunflowers by Gooseranch Sep 22, 2022 6:04 PM 1
Sunflower Secrets by flaflwrgrl Oct 25, 2014 12:23 PM 46
Grit Remembered by TBGDN Oct 21, 2014 4:15 PM 1

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