According to Greek mythology, the water nymph Clytie fell in love with the god of the sun, Apollo, who dazzled the earth as he drove his golden chariot across the sky each day. When he rejected Clytie’s affection, it nearly drove her mad. She spent days without food or water as she searched the heavens and waited for Apollo to appear.
“In the end, she was transformed into a sunflower, a plant which turns its face toward the sun as it moves across the sky each day,” said University of Missouri horticulturist David Trinklein, in a press release. Young sunflowers actually search the heavens for light for photosynthesis in a process called heliotropism, Trinklein said. The sunflower’s internal (circadian) clock acts on growth hormones that cause cells on different sides of the plant’s stems to enlarge or contract.
Older sunflowers mainly face east, warming themselves early in the day to attract pollinators. This tough, carefree flower will bring smiles to the faces of even novice gardeners and children, Trinklein said. Its head of tightly packed clusters of small, tubular disc florets produce seeds.
The surrounding ray florets, often incorrectly referred to as petals, attract pollinators. Native Americans grew sunflowers for their edible, nutrient-rich seeds. Sunflowers made their way to Europe in the early 16th century.
Russians soon developed a thriving sunflower oil industry. American farmers produce nearly 3 billion pounds of sunflower seeds yearly. Recently, sunflo.