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USA

Kansas State Flower:

Photo of field of sunflowers
Field of sunflowers - photo by Bruce Fritz, courtesy
USDA Agricultural Research Service Image Gallery: Plants

Wild Native Sunflower

Kansas recognized the sunflower as official state flower in 1903 (the sunflower is also featured on the Kansas state quarter).
Excerpt from Kansas legislation:

Whereas, Kansas has a native wild flower common throughout her borders, hardy and conspicuous, of definite, unvarying and striking shape, easily sketched, moulded, and carved, having armorial capacities, ideally adapted for artistic reproduction, with its strong, distinct disk and its golden circle of clear glowing rays -- a flower that a child can draw on a slate, a woman can work in silk, or a man can carve on stone or fashion in clay; and

Whereas, This flower has to all Kansans a historic symbolism which speaks of frontier days, winding trails, pathless prairies, and is full of the life and glory of the past, the pride of the present, and richly emblematic of the majesty of a golden future, and is a flower which has given Kansas the world-wide name, "the sunflower state"...

Be it enacted ... that the helianthus or wild native sunflower is ... designated ... the state flower and floral emblem of the state of Kansas.

American Indians were using native sunflowers for food over 3,000 years ago. These wild sunflower seeds were only about 5 mm. long. Over hundreds of years and careful husbandry (selecting only the largest seeds for cultivation), the plains indians began the development of today's large modern sunflower, rich with oil.

Sunflower heads consist of 1,000 to 2,000 individual flowers joined together by a receptacle base. The large petals around the edge of a head are actually individual ray flowers, which do not develop into seed.

photo of large sunflower against blue sky
Photo of sunflower against deep blue sky courtesy
Free Public Domain Photo Database: Sunflower

There are more than 60 species of sunflowers. The Native Sunflower grows to 15 feet tall with flower heads up to 2 feet in diameter, and can produce over 1,000 seeds from one plant. The flower head turns and faces the sun throughout the day - tracking the sun's movement. Sunflower seeds are rich in protein and yield a high-quality vegetable oil.

 

Source:
Sunflower: an American Native: U of Missouri
The Sunflower: Kansas...at home on the range
Common Sunflower (Helianthus annuus): SHG Resources
Links:
Sunflower Family (Asteraceae): Wayne's World
Sunflowers Transcend Seedy Existence: Vegetarians in Paradise
State Flowers - 50 States List
National Flower
Google

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