Sunflowers Are Beautiful And Fascinating

Many individual florets are crowded together within the flowering head. The outer petals of the florets are called as ray florets. They are sterile and may be yellow, orange, red and of other colours. The florets present on the inner side of the head are called as disc florets and are responsible for the production of seeds. We all love flowers and sunflower is amongst them. Sunflower is native to America and is an annual plant scientifically known as Helianthus annuus. The inflorescence is very large also known as flowering head. It is called as sunflower because of the fiery blooms, shape and size resembles like that of a sun. The plant can be characterized by presence of rough, hairy stem, broad, coarsely toothed leaves and circular heads of flowers. The flowering head consists of 1,000-2,000 individual flowers joined together by a receptacle base.

Young sunflowers show a specific phototropic response known as heliotropism where they orient themselves according to the position of the sun and their orientation often changes from east to west during the day as the sun changes its direction. This movement of the flowering heads often becomes circadian and the older pattern is followed for few days but the orientation of leaves occurs from west to east just opposite to that of the flowering head. The orientation of flowering heads and the leaves continue till the plant continues to grow but as the plant attains maturity these movements stop. The oil is much cheaper than the olive oil. A large number of sunflower varieties are available differing in the fatty acid composition. Some contain higher levels of monounsaturated fatty acids even more than that of the olive oil. The cakes left after the extraction of oil from the seed is used as cattle feed.

The flowers with drooping heads are not attractive to the gardeners using sunflowers as ornamental plants but they are quite appealing to the farmers as they remain protected from birds and other plant diseases. They also produce latex that is used in the production of hypoallergenic rubber. Annual species are often grown for their allelopathic properties. In the Midwestern US they are considered as weed as some wild species are found to grow along with the agricultural crops and cast a negative effect over them. Sunflowers are a beautiful and fascinating annual plant growing several feet in the air with showy, yellow heads comprised of numerous flowers resembling large petals. Because of their bright color, sunflowers are quite attractive to bees which pollinate them moving from flower to flower. Sunflower kernels are the result after the outer shell has been removed mechanically leaving the inner "meat" intact. The kernel can then be eaten raw or roasted as a snack or for a tasty addition to many recipes especially salads.