Professional Documents
Culture Documents
SUNFLOWER
Common Name: Sunflower
Awards: State Flower of Kansas – 1903 and Kansas Wildflower of the Year – 2000
The Common Sunflower has a long history of association with people. Nearly 3,000
years ago it was domesticated for food production by the Native Americans. The
seeds of the wild type of sunflower are only about 5 mm. long. It was only through
careful selection for the largest size seeds over hundreds of years that the
cultivated sunflower was produced. Lewis and Clark made mention in their journals
of its usage by the plains Indians. It was brought back to the Old World by the early
European explorers and widely cultivated there also. Today it is a common
alternative crop in the Great Plains and elsewhere for food and oil production.
Next time you munch down on some sunflower seeds, thank the many generations
of Native Americans whose careful husbandry gave us this valuable food item.
The wild cousins of those grown on the farm are still common, however, in fields,
roadsides and disturbed ground throughout the Great Plains. The Common
Sunflower is a typical member of the Asteraceae, one of the largest and most
successful families of plants. Within the structure we think of as the "flower", it
actually has two different types of flowers - ray and disk flowers.
The ray flowers have the big, straplike structures that we see around the edge of
the "flower" while the disk flowers occupy the middle of it. Within the Asteraceae,
many confusing combinations of the two are possible along with the total absence
of one or the other in some species! Individual ray or disk flowers may be male,
female or both and either fertile or infertile (do or don't produce seeds). In
sunflowers, the ray flowers are usually female and infertile. The disk flowers are
both male and female and are fertile.
PLANTS (Flowers)
BUSH MORNING-GLORY
Common Name: Bush Morning-glory
Aside from its flowers, the most startling thing about Bush Morning-glory is what is
beneath the ground. It draws its nickname of "Man Root" from the huge taproot it
develops, which is nearly the size of a person. Immediately below the ground
surface and then for another foot or so, it will have a root about 1/2 inch in
diameter. Below that, it will abruptly swell into a huge turnip-shaped taproot as
much as 2 feet thick and 5-6 feet long! Lateral roots off this may extend out
another 25 feet! Obviously, this species expects to see hard times and prepares
accordingly.
The root was used as a food source by Native Americans during winter. It needs to
be boiled or baked because it is bitter when raw. Younger specimens were
preferred to the gigantic older ones described above, both for reasons of taste and
ease of digging them up!