Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)
NATIVE RANGE:
Originally domesticated in the Americas, now grown worldwide.
DESCRIPTION:
Large annual plant with a hairy stem and broad, coarsely- toothed leaves. Wild sunflowers may have more than one flower head per plant but in cultivation generally a single flower tops a long stalk.
SYMBOLISM:
First cultivated 5000 years ago, by Indigenous people from Peru to North America, sunflowers have been important symbols in many cultures for thousands of years. They represent bounty and harvest, and some believed that the dead frequented sunflowers because they reminded them of the sun. Most recently sunflowers have represented the first Vegan Society, the movement for nuclear disarmament, the state of Kansas, and a couple’s 3rd wedding anniversary. Today, they are a global symbol of green ideology, and peace.
They are the national flower of Ukraine where almost half of the world’s sunflower oil is produced.
You can see the Ukrainian flag in its fields of sunflowers, like this one in the Cherkasy region.
HYPER-ACCUMULATORS:
Sunflower are more than symbols, they can rehabilitate the soil and water of broken ecosystems. They are among plants called hyperaccumulators. This kind of plant is able to grow in soils or water with a high concentration of metals. They absorb these heavy metals through their roots and then store them in their tissue. Using plants to remove contaminants is called phytoremediation- as in plant remedy.
In the 90s, DaimlerChrysler planted fields of sunflowers at an abandoned manufacturing site in Detroit. Within one growing season, 5750 cubic yards of lead contaminated soil was reduced to a few yards of lead-contaminated plant material that was then hauled off to a special landfill. Sunflowers have been grown in Hiroshima and Chernobyl. After the disaster at Fukushima, over 8 million sunflowers were planted to try and remove toxins in the soil as far as 60 miles from the site of the defunct nuclear power plant.