Short History of the Sunflower

Helianthus Annuus is just the happiest looking flower and a fascinating species with an interesting history. The wild sunflower was a native North American species originally domesticated by Native Americans and cultivated into a single head plant. They used the sunflower crops for many different uses, varying from pounding the seeds into a flour, or squeezing the oil from the seeds to use for cooking. The sunflower was also used for textile dyes, body paints and medicinal ointments.

Sunflowers were one of the few original American crops, evidence suggests cultivated sunflower crops were grown by Native American tribes in the South West (modern day Arizona and New Mexico region) in about 3000 BCE. Suggesting that Sunflowers may have been domesticated even before corn. Yet the commercialization of the sunflower took place in Russia.

The sunflower was brought back to Europe by Spanish explorers as early as the 1500s, but was strictly ornamental. By the 18th century the medicinal benefits as well as the commercial uses of sunflowers were  becoming widely excepted, leading to the widespread cultivation of sunflowers in western Europe. In the early 19th century it is estimated that Russian farmer's sunflower crops exceeded 2 million acres, with only two variations of the species. The two variations consisted of a large seed one ideal for direct human consumption and a smaller seed with higher levels of oil  for oil production. About this same time the Russian Orthodox Church forbid most oil foods from being consumed during lent, however sunflower was not on the list of prohibited foods, which only worked to increase the demand and popularity of the sunflower oil. The implementation of the Russian government research programs and the work of V.S. Pustovoit in developing a successful breeding program, worked to increase the oil content and yield of the sunflowers were greatly increased.



In America however, the commercial sunflower crops were used for silage poultry feed. It wasn't until the 1970s, that the sunflower became a large American crop with over five million acres. This was due in large part to the hybridization of the sunflower in North America that produced a disease resistant high yield crop as well as the high European demand for sunflower seed oil and Russia inability to fill that demand.

So next time you look at an ornamental sunflower in an arrangement on your shelf or table. Think of the millenia of years that went into producing the sunflowers we know today and the high yield commercial crop.