6 Interesting Facts about Sun Flower

Who doesn’t love Sunflower? Almost all of us like this bright yellow flower. It resembled sun on many aspects, from shape, colour even the energy it radiates. But how much do you know about this unique flower?

SUNFLOWERS are also famous as a flower bouquet to hand to our loved ones. You may already know that this flower is perfect for gift, but do you know that this flower is edible too?

Yes, it is just one of thousand facts Sunflower has. However, to simplify it, here are 6 Sunflower facts that I find quite interesting. 

1. Sunflower Track The Sun

Sunflowers show behaviour called heliotropism. It is a growth movement in plants that induced by sunlight. In the morning, the flower buds will face east and then it changes the direction as the sun moves during the day.

However, the flower heads will typically remain facing left as the flowers get heavier during seed production and eventually lead to stiff stem.

This is probably the most interesting sunflower fact, since the flower itself match to sunlight direction.

2. Sunflower Have Travelled to Space

We often hear about apes who have travelled to space, but flowers? I don’t think so. However, in 2012, U.S astronaut called Don Pettit brought along a few companions on his journey to space, including sunflower seed.

He regularly blogged his journey and companion friend. He even reported about unusual development of sunflower growth when it is going to seed. “The flower bloom is wilted-brown and has a few lopsided packed seeds” he said. 

3. The Bloom Is Actually Made from Thousands of Tiny Flowers

If you look closely to a single sunflower bloom, you would realize that it is made of smaller flowers. The petals we see around the outside are called ray florets.

The disc florets in the middle, is a place for seeds to develop and have both male and female sex organs. Each one produce a seed. They can pollinate themselves or take pollen blown by the wind or transported by insects. 

4. Sunflower Oil Is Good to Treat Inflammation

When you suffer from skin inflammation, rubbing sunflower oil to it will help you a lot.

It possess anti-inflammatory properties such as linoleic acid that can convert to arachidonic acid. They are both fatty acids that can help reduce water loss and repair the skin barrier. 

5. Sunflower Is Native to America

Some people might have misconception about sunflower origin. They think about Europe when they heard the word “sunflower”. However, it was actually cultivated in North America as far back as 3000 BCE.

At that time, sunflower was harvested for food, medicine, dye and oil. After that, they were exported to the rest of the world by Spanish conquistadors around 1500. 

6. You Can Make Butter from Sunflower

Putting peanut butter on your sliced of bread is very usual, but how about sunbutter? If you have a nut allergy, this can be a good alternative for your diet.

An interesting fact about sunflower seed butter is that it has less saturated fat than peanut butter, so it would be safer to consume it during your diet program. 

From all sunflower facts explained above, what fact attracts you the most? Not all flower have abundance facts like sunflower do.

Sunflowers can help you by using them based on your need, whether it is for flower bouquet or other usage like butter or oil.