Myths Surround the Popular Late-Summer Sunflower

MYTH 1: Technically, a sunflower isn’t “a flower”. Each huge flowerhead (aka inflorescence) is made up of between one and two-thousand disc-shaped mini-flowers or “florets” set into a single base. Surrounding them is a bright fringe of petals—flower No. 2. The central circular clusters of small flowers produces the seeds, a favorite treat with humans, birds and other garden critters.

MYTH 2: “Sunflower” heads follow the sun, a process known as heliotropism. In fact, the mature sunflower head stays put. But the buds and leaves of young sunflowers do shift with the sun from east to west during the day.

MYTH 3: Contrary to assumptions in Grade K art classes, the flowers and seeds in the central sunflower head do not form concentric rings either. Instead they are arrayed in a series of interconnecting spirals—with each floret set against its neighbor at 137.5 degrees, the so-called “golden angle”. Apparently that guarantees the most efficient packing of seeds into the head. Those spiral patterns are predictable, based on a system called the Fibonacci numbers.

Math was never my forte, but I’ll confess, that last bit made me sit up and take notice. Sunflowers were first cultivated in Central America and introduced via Mexico in the Mississippi Valley in early pre-history about the same time as maize. Evidence of domesticated sunflowers have been found in Tennessee dating back to 2300 BC. Europeans first came across the plant in Peru where, as is true elsewhere among native peoples, sunflowers took on religious significance. Some sources say the Spanish once suppressed importation of sunflower seeds because they were considered heretical symbols of sun-worship. Ironically, the oil of sunflower became popular originally because it was considered okay to use  it during the religious fasting period of Lent. One thing for certain about sunflowers: the North Fork late summer landscape wouldn’t be the same without them.