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Historic sunflowers
enjoying new popularity
By Wayne McLaurin
Georgia Extension Service
The sunflower is enjoying
renewed popularity as an orna
mental these days. But sunflow
ers are estimated to have been in
its native North America as early
as 3000 B.C.
These huge flowers have long
been used as food. Native
Americans ground the seed into a
flour to bake into breads and mix
with vegetables. The Russians are
credited with adapting the sun
flower as an oil crop.
Spanish explorers are thought
to have taken the sunflower back
to Europe mainly as an ornamen
tal.
The sunflower is in the
Asteraceae (formerly Composite)
family. This large, diverse family
also includes dandelions, asters,
lettuce, marigolds, chrysanthe
mums. thistles and yarrow.
The flower structure of the
sunflower will surprise you if you
inspect it closer. What most peo
ple think of as one flower is actu
ally a cluster of many flowers
• botanists call a "head.”
The outer, more showy flow
ers that appear to be petals are
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called ray flowers. The smaller,
tube-shaped flowers in the center
of the head are called disk flow
ers.
The ray flowers are usually
sterile, so they don’t produce
seed. But they’re brightly colored
to attract insects and the pollen
they carry from other sunflowers.
The disk flowers are the ones that
actually receive the pollen and
subsequently produce the seeds.
Gardeners will find two types
of sunflowers in garden centers
and mail-order catalogs: those
grown for their edible seeds and
those grown mainly as ornamen
tal
Traditional varieties were
quite tall (5 feet plus) with bright
yellow blooms. Modem cultivars
now offer a range of orange,
gold, lemon yellow, bronze,
amber, mahogany and even white.
Another development is a
more highly branched plant that
may carry many smaller flower
heads rather than one large head.
Some cultivars have been bred
to fill the center with additional
rows of ray-type flowers, giving
them a fuller, “double-flowered”
look.
Today’s catalog offers sun-
flowers ranging from dwarf types
(1-2 feet) to intermediate (3-4
feet) to tall (5 feet and up).
Sunflowers have been gaining
prominence as a cutflower crop
in the florist industry. Breeders
have responded by creating new
hybrids that bloom without pro
ducing pollen. These new floral
cultivars solve the problem of
pollen stains on fabrics and also
extend the vase life of the cut
flower.
Sunflowers are easy to grow
in just about any type of garden
soil and climate. But choose a
sunny place for best flowering.
Although the sunflower is consid
ered a warmseason crop, most
will tolerate a light frost.
See SUNFLOWER, Page 20D
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FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Sumtoy, April 12, ISM
Photo/Tom Brooks
The sunflower was once used for food by Native Americans and
was later brought to Europe as an ornamental flower. The sun
flower actually has two types of flowers, the ray and the disc.
PAGE 19D
