Sunflower 🌻 (Heliantus annuus L.) is one of the most valuable agricultural crops. This is the main oil crop in our country. Its share accounts for about 70% of the sown areas of all oil crops.
The most interesting facts about sunflower
🌻 In Central America, the sunflower began to be grown more than 2 thousand years ago, it was used for the production of food, medicine, dyes and oil. Later, it appeared in another world, thanks to the Spanish conquistadors at the beginning of the 16th century.
🌻 The tallest sunflower in the world was officially registered in 2009. The plant with a height of more than 8 meters was grown by Hans-Peter Schiffer in Germany.
🌻 Sunflower not only looks like the Sun, but also needs a lot of sunlight. Sunflower grows faster if it receives at least eight hours of sunlight per day.
🌻 Not all sunflowers are yellow. There are more than 60 varieties of sunflower around the world and many cultivated ornamental varieties, some of which have reddish petals or shades of brown and orange.
🌻 Our country is the world’s largest exporter of sunflower oil (about 40% of world exports), Ukraine produces about 20% of the world’s sunflower oil. In addition, Ukraine has been the largest producer of sunflower seeds for many years.
🌻 Sunflowers can remove toxins from contaminated soil, such as lead, arsenic, uranium, etc. Because they are natural soil deactivators. Sunflowers have even been used to clean up the soil in places where some of the world’s biggest environmental disasters have occurred, such as Chernobyl (Ukraine, 1986) and Fukushima (Japan, 2011).
🌻 In 2012, American astronaut Don Pettit delivered sunflower seeds to the International Space Station to study the process of plant greening.
🌻 Sunflowers attract bees, making their planting very useful in areas where beekeeping is highly developed.
🌻 Sunflower oil is extremely rich in calcium and iron, as well as vitamins A and D. It is a product of vegetable origin, so it cannot contain cholesterol. But, interestingly, many manufacturers for advertising purposes specifically focus on its absence.
🌻 By the way, the Latin name of sunflower (Helianthus) translates as “sunflower”. And this is not a coincidence! After all, people noticed that these plants are constantly turned towards the Sun (which was already mentioned above). Scientists call this feature “heliotropy”. But it is not simple either, sunflower tissues contain the phytohormone auxin, which stimulates the growth and development of the plant due to sunlight.