Learn About The Common Sunflower
In this episode of the 'I Can't Sleep Podcast,' drift off while learning about the common sunflower. Though considered weeds where I grew up, these radiant flowers serve as a source of food and much more around the world. Tonight, let them be your sleep-inducing bedtime story. Happy sleeping!
Transcript
Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast,
Where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice.
I'm your host,
Benjamin Boster.
Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled,
Common Sunflower.
The common sunflower is a species of large annual forb of the daisy family Asteraceae.
The common sunflower is harvested for its edible oily seeds,
Which are used in the production of cooking oil.
The Helianthus annuus has a variety of purposes,
E.
G.
Food for livestock,
Bird food,
And planted in domestic gardens for aesthetics.
The Helianthus annuus is known for its multiple flower heads,
Whereas the domestic sunflower often possesses a single large flower head atop an unbranched stem.
In the binomial name Helianthus annuus,
The genus name is derived from the Greek word helios,
Sun,
And anthos,
Flower.
The species name annuus means annual in Latin.
The plant was first domesticated in the Americas.
Sunflower seeds were brought to Europe from the Americas in the 16th century,
Where,
Along with sunflower oil,
They became a widespread cooking ingredient.
With time,
The bulk of industrial-scale production has shifted to Eastern Europe,
And,
As of 2020,
Russia and Ukraine together produce over half of worldwide seed production.
The plant reaches typically heights of 3 meters.
The tallest sunflower on record achieved 9.
17 meters.
Sunflower leaves are broad,
Coarsely toothed,
Rough,
And mostly alternate.
Those near the bottom are largest and commonly heart-shaped.
The plant flowers in summer.
What is often called the flower of the sunflower is actually a flower head,
7.
5 to 12.
5 centimeters wide,
Of numerous small individual five-petaled flowers,
Florets.
The outer flowers,
Which resemble petals,
Are called rayflowers.
Each petal consists of a ligule composed of fused petals of an asymmetrical rayflower.
They are sexually sterile and may be yellow,
Red,
Orange,
Or other colors.
The spirally arranged flowers in the center of the head are called disc flowers.
These mature into fruit,
Sunflower seeds.
The prairie sunflower is similar in appearance to the wild common sunflower.
The scales in its central disc are tipped by white hairs.
A common misconception is that flowering sunflower heads track the sun across the sky.
Although immature flower buds exhibit this behavior,
The mature flowering heads point in a fixed and typically easterly direction throughout the day.
This old misconception was disputed in 1597 by the English botanist John Gerard,
Who grew sunflowers in his famous herbal garden.
Some have reported it to turn with the sun,
The which I could never observe,
Although I have endeavored to find out the truth of it.
The uniform alignment of sunflower heads in a field might give some people the false impression that the flowers are tracking the sun.
The alignment results from heliotropism in an earlier development stage,
The young flower stage,
Before full maturity of flower heads,
Anthesis.
Young sunflowers orient themselves in the direction of the sun.
At dawn,
The head of the flower faces east and moves west throughout the day.
When sunflowers reach full maturity,
They no longer follow the sun and continuously face east.
Young flowers reorient overnight to face east in anticipation of the morning.
Their heliotropic motion is a circadian rhythm,
Synchronized by the sun,
Which continues if the sun disappears on cloudy days or if plants are moved to constant light.
They are able to regulate their circadian rhythm in response to the blue light emitted by a light source.
If a sunflower plant in the bud stage is rotated 180 degrees,
The bud will be turning away from the sun for a few days,
As resynchronization with the sun takes time.
When growth of the flower stalk stops and the flower is mature,
The heliotropism also stops and the flower faces east from that moment onward.
This eastward orientation allows rapid warming in the morning and as a result,
An increase in pollinator visits.
Sunflowers do not have a pulvinus below their inflorescence.
A pulvinus is a flexible segment in the leaf stalks of some plant species and functions as a joint.
It effectuates leaf motion due to reversible changes in turgor pressure,
Which occurs without growth.
The sensitive plant's closing leaves are a good example of reversible leaf movement via pulvinuli.
Generally,
Each floret is oriented toward the next by approximately the golden angle 137.
5 degrees,
Producing a pattern of interconnecting spirals,
Where the number of left spirals and the number of right spirals are successive Fibonacci numbers.
Typically,
There are 34 spirals in one direction and 55 in the other.
However,
In a very large sunflower head,
There could be 89 in one direction and 144 in the other.
This pattern produces the most efficient packing of seeds mathematically possible within the flower head.
A model for the pattern of florets in the head of a sunflower is proposed by H.
Vogel in 1979.
The sunflower genome is a diploid with a base chromosome number of 17 and an estimated genome size of 2,
871 to 3,
189 million base pairs.
Some sources claim its true size is around 3.
5 billion base pairs,
Slightly larger than the human genome.
The plant was first domesticated in the Americas.
Sunflowers grow best in fertile,
Moist,
Well-drained soil with heavy mulch.
They often appear on dry,
Open areas and foothills.
Outside of cultivation,
The common sunflower is found on moist,
Clay-based soils in areas with climates similar to Texas.
In contrast,
The related Helianthus stabilis and Helianthus petularis are found on drier,
Sandier soils.
The precise native range is difficult to determine.
According to Plants of the World Online,
P.
O.
W.
O.
,
It is native to Arizona,
California,
And Nevada in the present-day United States,
And to all parts of Mexico except the Gulf Coast and Southeast.
Though not given as great of detail,
The Missouri Botanical Garden plant finder also lists it as a native to the western United States and Canada.
The information published by the Biota of North America program,
BONAB,
Largely agrees with this,
Showing the common sunflower as native to states west of the Mississippi,
Though also listed as a noxious weed in Iowa,
Minnesota,
And Texas.
Regardless of its original range,
It can now be found in almost every part of the world that is not tropical,
Desert,
Or tundra.
One of the major threats that sunflowers face today is Fusarium,
A filamentous fungus that is found largely in soil and plants.
It is a pathogen that over the years has caused an increasing amount of damage and loss of sunflower crops,
Some as extensive as 80% of damaged crops.
Downy mildew is another disease to which sunflowers are susceptible.
Its susceptibility to downy mildew is particularly high due to the sunflower's way of growth and development.
Sunflower seeds are generally planted only an inch deep in the ground.
When such shallow planting is done in moist and soaked earth or soil,
It increases the chances of diseases such as downy mildew.
Another major threat to sunflower crops is Broom Rape,
A parasite that attacks the root of the sunflower and causes extensive damage to sunflower crops as high as 100%.
In commercial planting,
Seeds are planted 45 cm apart and 2.
5 cm deep.
Common sunflower was one of several plants cultivated by Native Americans in prehistoric North America as part of the eastern agricultural complex.
Although it was commonly accepted that the sunflower was first domesticated in what is now the southeastern U.
S.
Roughly 5,
000 years ago,
There is evidence that it was first domesticated in Mexico around 2600 BCE.
These crops were found in Tabasco,
Mexico at the San Andres dig site.
The earliest known example in the U.
S.
Of a fully domesticated sunflower have been found in Tennessee and date to around 2300 BCE.
Other very early examples come from rock shelter sites in eastern Kentucky.
Many indigenous American peoples used the sunflower as a symbol of their solar deity,
Including the Aztecs in the Otomi of Mexico and the Incas in South America.
In 1510,
Early Spanish explorers encountered the sunflower in the Americas and carried its seeds back to Europe.
Of the four plants known to have been domesticated in eastern North America and to have become important agricultural commodities,
The sunflower is currently the most economically important.
Research of phylogeographic relations and population demographic patterns across sunflowers has demonstrated that earlier cultivated sunflowers form a clade from wild populations from the Great Plains,
Which indicates that there was a single domestication event in central North America.
Following the cultivated sunflower's origin,
It may have gone through significant bottlenecks dating back to around 5,
000 years ago.
In the 16th century,
The first crop breeds were brought from America to Europe by explorers.
Democratic sunflower seeds have been found in Mexico dating to 2100 BCE.
Native American people grew sunflowers as a crop from Mexico to southern Canada.
They then were introduced to the Russian Empire where oilseed cultivators were located,
And the flowers were developed and grown on an industrial scale.
The Russian Empire reintroduced this oilseed cultivation process to North America in the mid-20th century.
North America began their commercial era of sunflower production and breeding.
New breeds of the flower began to become more prominent in new geographical areas.
During the 18th century,
The use of sunflower oil became very popular in Russia,
Particularly with members of the Russian Orthodox Church,
Because only plant-based fats were allowed during Lent,
According to fasting traditions.
In the early 19th century,
It was first commercialized in the village of Alexeyevka in Voronezh Governorate by the merchant named Danil Bukaryov,
Who developed a technology suitable for its large-scale extraction and quickly spread around.
The town's coat of arms has included an image of a sunflower ever since.
In 2020,
World production of sunflower seeds was 50 million tons,
Led by Russia and Ukraine with 53% combined of the total.
Researchers have analyzed the impact of various nitrogen-based fertilizers on the growth of sunflowers.
Ammonium nitrate was found to produce better nitrogen absorption than urea,
Which performed better in low-temperature areas.
Sunflower cultivation typically uses crop rotation,
Often with cereals,
Soybean or rapeseed.
This reduces idle periods and increases total sunflower production and profitability.
In today's market,
Most of the sunflower seeds provided or grown by farmers are hybrids.
Hybrids or hybridized sunflowers are produced by cross-breeding different types and species – for example,
Cultivated sunflowers with wild species.
By doing so,
New genetic recombinations are obtained,
Ultimately leading to the production of new hybrid species.
These hybrid species generally have a higher fitness and carry properties of characteristics that farmers look for,
Such as resistance to pathogens.
Hybrid,
Eleanthus annuus dwarf 2 does not contain the hormone gibberellin and does not display a heliotropic behavior.
Sunflowers treated with an external application of the hormone display a temporary restoration of elongation growth patterns.
This growth pattern diminished by 35% 7-14 days after final treatment.
Hybrid male sterile and male fertile flowers that display heterogeneity have a low crossover of honeybee visitation.
Territory cues such as pollen odor,
Diameter of seed head,
And height may influence pollinator visitation of pollinators that display constant seed behavior patterns.
Sunflowers are grown as ornamentals in a domestic setting.
Being easy to grow and producing spectacular results in any good,
Moist soil in full sun,
They are a favorite subject for children.
A large number of cultivars of varying size and color are now available to grow from seed.
The following are cultivars of sunflower.
American Giant,
Arnica,
Autumn Beauty,
Aztec Sun,
Black Oil,
Chianti Hybrid,
Claret AGM,
North Sunspot,
Evening Sun,
Florenza,
Giant Primrose,
Gullex Variety AGM,
Incredible,
Indian Blanket Hybrid,
Irish Eyes,
Italian White,
Kong Hybrid,
Large Grey Stripe,
Lemon Queen AGM,
Laudan Gold AGM,
Miss Mellish AGM,
Monarch AGM,
Mongolian Giant,
Moonwalker,
Munchkin,
Orange Sun,
Pastiche AGM,
Peach Passion,
Peredovik,
Prado Red,
Red Sun,
Ring of Fire,
Rostov,
Russian Giant,
Skyscraper,
Solar Eclipse,
Soraya,
Strawberry Blonde,
Sunny Hybrid,
Sensation Yellow,
Sunshine,
Taiyo,
Tarahumara,
Teddy Bear AGM,
Thousand Suns,
Titan,
Valentine AGM,
Velvet Queen,
Yellow Disc.
Sunflower whole seed fruit are sold as a snack food,
Raw or after roasting in ovens,
With or without salt,
And are seasonings added.
Sunflower seeds can be processed into a peanut butter alternative,
Sunflower butter.
It is also sold as food for birds and can be used directly in cooking and salads.
Native Americans had multiple uses for sunflowers in the past,
Such as in bread,
Medical ointments,
Dyes,
And body paints.
Sunflower oil extracted from the seeds is used for cooking as a carrier oil and to produce margarine and biodiesel,
As it is cheaper than olive oil.
A range of sunflower varieties exist with differing fatty acid compositions.
Some high oleic types contain a higher level of monosaturated fats in their oil than even olive oil.
The oil is also sometimes used in soap.
After World War I,
During the Russian Civil War,
People in Ukraine used sunflower seed oil in lamps as a substitute for kerosene due to shortages.
The light from such a lamp has been described as miserable and smoky.
The cake remaining after the seeds have been processed for oil is used as a livestock feed.
The holes resulting from the de-holing of the seeds before oil extraction can also be fed to domestic animals.
Some recently developed cultivars have drooping heads.
These cultivars are less attractive to gardeners growing the flowers as ornamental plants,
But appeal to farmers because they reduce bird damage and losses from some plant diseases.
Sunflowers also produce latex and are the subject of experiments to improve their suitability as an alternative crop for producing hypoallergenic rubber.
Traditionally,
Several Native American groups planted sunflowers on the north edges of their gardens as a fourth sister to the better-known three-sisters combination of corn,
Beans,
And squash.
Annual species are often planted for their allelopathic properties.
It was also used by Native Americans to dress hair.
Among the Zuni people,
The fresh or dried root is chewed by the medicine man before sucking venom from a snakebite and applying a poultice to the wound.
This compound poultice of the root is applied with much ceremony to rattlesnake bites.
However,
For commercial farmers growing other commodity crops,
The wild sunflower is often considered a weed.
Especially in the Midwestern U.
S.
,
Wild perennial species are often found in corn and soybean fields and can decrease yields.
A decrease in yield can be attributed to the production of phenolic compounds,
Which are used to reduce competition for nutrients in nutrient-poor growing areas of the common sunflower.
Ileanthus anuus can be used in phytoremediation to extract pollutants from soil,
Such as lead and other heavy metals,
Such as cadmium,
Zinc,
Cesium,
Strontium,
And uranium.
The phytoremediation process begins by absorbing the heavy metals through the roots,
Which gradually accumulate in other areas,
Such as the shoots and leaves.
Ileanthus anuus can also be used in rhizofiltration to neutralize radionuclides,
Such as cesium-137 and strontium-90,
From a pond after the Chernobyl disaster.
A similar campaign was mounted in response to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
According to Iroquois mythology,
The first sunflowers grew out of Earth Woman's legs after she died giving birth to her twin sons,
Sapling and Flint.
During the 19th century,
It was believed that nearby plants of the species would protect a home from malaria.
The Zuni people used the blossoms ceremonially for anthropic worship.
Sunflowers were also worshipped by the Incas because they viewed it as a symbol of the sun.
The flowers are the subject of Vincent van Gogh's Sunflower series of still-life paintings.
In July 2015,
Viable seeds were acquired from the field where Malaysia Airline Flight 17 crashed a year earlier and were grown in tribute to the 15 Dutch residents of Hilversum who were killed.
Earlier that year,
Fairfax chief correspondent Paul McGuff and photographer Kate Garrity had collected 1.
5 kilograms of sunflower seeds from the wreck site for family and friends of the 38 Australian victims who aimed to give them a poignant symbol of hope.
On May 13,
2021,
During the National Costume Competition of the Miss Universe 2020 Beauty Pageant,
Miss Dominican Republic Kimberly Jimenez wore a Goddess of Sunflowers costume covered in gold and yellow rhinestones that included several real sunflowers sewn onto the fabric.
Modern stories often claim that in Greek mythology,
The nymph Clyde transformed into a sunflower when she pined after her former lover Helios,
The god of the sun,
Who spurned her and left her for another.
However,
Sunflowers are not native to Greece or Italy,
But to North America.
The original story is about another flower,
The Heliotropium.
The sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine.
Ukrainians used sunflower as a main source of cooking oil instead of butter or lard,
Forbidden by the Orthodox Church when observing Lent.
They were planted to clean nuclear waste in Chernobyl.
In June 1996,
United States,
Russia,
And Ukraine officials planted sunflowers at the Pervomaisk missile base where Soviet nuclear weapons were formally placed.
The sunflower is also the state flower of the U.
S.
State of Kansas and one of the city flowers of Kitakayushu,
Japan.
During the late 19th century,
The flower was used as the symbol of the aesthetic movement.
The sunflower was chosen as the symbol of the spiritualist church for many reasons,
But mostly because of the false belief that the flowers turn toward the sun as spiritualism turns toward the light of truth.
Modern spiritualists often have art or jewelry with sunflower designs.
The sunflower is often used as a symbol of green ideology.
The flower is also the symbol of the vegan society.
The sunflower is the symbol behind the Sunflower Movement,
A 2014 mass protest in Taiwan.
The hidden disabilities sunflower was first used as a visible symbol,
Typically worn on a lanyard,
May 2016 at London Gatwick Airport.
It has since come into common usage through the UK and in the Commonwealth more generally.
Sunflower oil is the non-volatile oil pressed from the seeds of the sunflower.
Sunflower oil is commonly used in food as a frying oil and in cosmetic formulations as an emollient.
Sunflower oil is primarily composed of linoleic acid,
A polyunsaturated fat,
And oleic acid,
A monosaturated fat.
Through selective breeding and manufacturing processes,
Oils of differing proportions of the fatty acids are produced.
The expressed oil has a neutral taste profile.
The oil contains a large amount of vitamin E.
Sunflower oil is mainly a triglyceride.
The British Pharmacopoeia lists the following profile.
Palmitic acid,
Saturated,
5% Stearic acid,
Saturated,
6% Oleic acid,
Monosaturated omega-9,
30% Linoleic acid,
Polyunsaturated omega-6,
59% Four types of sunflower oils with differing concentrations of fatty acids are produced through plant breeding and industrial processing.
High linoleic,
High oleic,
Mid oleic,
And high stearic combined with high oleic.
High linoleic,
69%,
Linoleic acid.
High oleic,
82%,
Oleic acid.
Mid oleic,
65%,
Oleic acid.
High stearic with high oleic,
18% stearic acid,
And 72% oleic acid.
A 2017 genome analysis provided a basis for development of hybrid sunflowers to increase oil production.
Analysis of the sunflower genome duplication starting about 29 million years ago revealed two major breeding traits,
Flowering time and oil metabolism,
Which can be cultivated to improve commercialization of sunflower oil.
In further analysis of the sunflower genome to reveal plant metabolism producing its oil,
Phytosterols and other phytochemicals such as polyphenols,
Squalling,
And terpenoids were identified.
In 2018,
World production of sunflower oil was 18 million tons,
Led by Ukraine and Russia,
Which together account for 53% of the world total.
Several varieties of sunflower oil seeds have been developed by standard plant breeding methods,
Mainly to vary the amounts of oleic acid and linoleic acid,
Which are the predominant monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats in sunflower oil.
Sunflower oil is a rich source of vitamin E.
Sunflower oil is a liquid at room temperature.
The refined oil is clear and slightly amber-colored with a slightly fatty odor.
Smoke point,
Refined,
232 °C.
Smoke point,
Unrefined,
107 °C.
Density,
25 °C,
918.
8 kg per m3.
Refractive index,
25 °C,
Around 1.
4735.
Saponification value,
188-194.
Iodine value,
120-145.
Unsaponifiable matter,
1.
5-2%.
Viscosity,
25 °C,
Unrefined,
0.
04914 kg per m2.
