Sunflower Saturday
When it comes to these glorious Yellow Sunny blooms…there is more than meets the eye. With the sun heating up our days as we spring forward toward summer we though we’d share some interesting facts on these gorgeous sunny blooms that often times have come to symbolize our beautiful golden state.
A lot of the sunflowers shipped nationally are indeed grown right here in Southern California :o)
1. Each sunflower is actually thousands of teeny flowers.
Each sunflower's head is made of thousands of smaller flowers. The petals we see around the outside are called ray florets, and they cannot reproduce.However 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.
2 . Sunflowers track the sun .
Sunflowers display a behavior called heliotropism. The flower buds and young blossoms will face east in the morning and follow the sun as the earth moves during the day. However, as the flowers get heavier during seed production, the stems will stiffen and the mature flower heads will generally remain facing east.
3. Not all Sunflowers are yellow.
A universal fact most people know is sunflowers are yellow. However, a sunflower’s pigment doesn’t stop there. Sunflowers can even be red and purple!
Yellow Sunflowers
Some examples of yellow sunflowers include American Giant, Schweinitz’s, Zohar and Elegance. These sunflower types are vibrant and sure to make you smile. The American Giant sunflower can grow up to 14 feet tall, so “giant” may be an understatement. This species is one of the tallest sunflowers and their faces can reach 12 inches wide.
Red Sunflowers
. Red sunflowers come in different varieties. Some of them have similar daisy-like heads which are often born of the common yellow sunflowers. My favorite red variety is the “ Molin Rouge” Sunflowers. These have a rich and deep tone and are an excellent way to add a pop of color in a bouquet or a vase arrangement.
Purple Sunflowers
A common “purple sunflower” is the Chianti Hybrid. A Chianti Hybrid’s petals have deep, dark reds which some classify as purple. This sunflower plant can grow to five feet and has no pollen, making it good for cutting. These sunflowers can help balance color in mixed bouquets.
4. Sunflowers hae traveled to space.
In 2012, U.S. astronaut Don Pettit brought along a few companions to the International Space Station: sunflower seeds. Petit regularly blogged about his budding friendship and shared photos of the gardening process.
5. The world’s tallest sunflower surpasses 30 feet in height.
In the summer of 2014, Veteran green-thumb Hans-Peter Schiffer toppled the Guinness World Record for third year in a row. The local fire brigade lent its help in measuring the sunflower, which required its own scaffold.
6. There are about 70 varieties of sunflowers.
Sunflowers make up the genus Helianthus which contains almost 70 different species including:
Skyscraper. These sunflowers are some of the tallest available, typically growing to between 12 and 14 feet. ...
American Giant Hybrid
Russian Mammoth
Giant Sungold
Elf
Suntastic Yellow
Firecracker
Teddy Bear
7. Sunflowers were initially planted as food sourse.
It is known that Natives Americans developed the sunflower plant as a food source. According to a University of Arizona report, sunflower cultivation is thought have to begun over 8,000 years ago. Some even suggest sunflower cultivation began before corn and beans.
Growing sunflowers has evolved beyond food since then. Today, many people use sunflowers as inspiration for fashion, art and home decor.
8. They are native to the Americas.
Even way back when, people saw the value in growing sunflowers, which are still harvested for sunflower seeds (and the oil you can make from them) today. In 2014, 1.7 million acres were planted in the United States, the USDA reports. The majority of those were found in North Dakota.
9. They have been planted to help with Nuclear radiation.
They're not just pretty faces, sunflowers are actually good at absorbing toxins, too.
Millions were planted after the devastating tsunami destroyed reactors in the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan.
10. Mature sunflowers face east.
As sunflowers reach maturity, their internal clocks start slowing down until they finish the heliotropism behavior completely. A ScienceMag study reveals mature sunflowers face East for a couple different reasons:
Sunflowers can attract up to five times more pollinators because they warm up faster than westward facing plants.
Sunflowers are more productively warmed when Eastward facing.
You can lean some more fun facts about another great Californian bloom here : FUN FACTS ABOUT RANUNCULUS
