Sunflowers..

• The scientific name of sunflowers is Helianthus, Helia for sun and Anthus for flower.
• Sunflowers are a great choice for planting to attract birds to your yard.
• Sunflowers are one of the fastest growing plants. They can grow 8 to 12 feet tall in rich soil within six months.
• Do you know what country grew the tallest sunflower? The Netherlands (25' 5.5" tall) grown in 1986 by M. Heijmf.
• It require only 90 to 100 days from planting to maturity.
• The former Soviet Union grows the most sunflowers. The sunflower is the national flower of Russia.
• The sunflower is native to North America and was used by the Indians for food and oil. Some farmers use it to feed their livestock.
• We use sunflower seeds to make oil, bird seed and for snacking. They have lots of calcium and 11 other important minerals. They do have 50% fat, BUT it is mostly polyunsaturated linoleic acid.
• Wild sunflower is highly branched with small heads and small seeds, in contrast to the single-stem and large seed head of domesticated sunflower.
• 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 sunflower head are individual ray flowers which do not develop into seed.  
• A well-known sunflower characteristic is that the flowering heads track the sun's movement, a phenomenon known as heliotropism.
• The daily orientation of the flower to the sun is a direct result of differential growth of the stem. A plant-growth regulator, or auxin, accumulates on the shaded side of a plant when conditions of unequal light prevail. Because of this accumulation, the darker side grows faster than the sunlit side. Thus, the stem bends toward the sun.
• Sunflower seeds are rich in oil, which they store as a source of energy and food. Sunflower seeds are crushed to give us oil. We can use sunflower oil for cooking.