Sunflower
Sunflowers are yearly plants native to the Americas that prevail a large inflorescence. The sunflower is native to the Central Americas. Sunflowers may have been domesticated a second time in the middle Mississippi Valley. Sunflower was likely first bring in to Europe by Spain, and spread by Europe as a peculiarity until it reached Russia. Production of sunflowers subsequently rose dramatically in the Great Plains states as marketers found new niches for the seeds as an oil crop, a birdseed crop, and as a human snack food. Production in these regions in the 1980s has refuse normally because of low prices, but also due to disease, insect and bird problems.
The Common Sunflower has a long history of association with people. Almost 3,000 years ago it was cultivate for food production by the Native Americans. The seeds of the wild type of sunflower are only about 5 mm. long. Sunflower was only by detailed selection for the largest size seeds over hundreds of years that the cultivated sunflower was produced. Lewis and Clark made observe in their journals of its utilization by the plains Indians. Sunflower was brought back to the Old World by the early European explorers and wide cultivated there also.
Today it is a common unconventional 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 deliberate husbandry gave us this important food
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