The Unbelievable History of Sunflowers

In this video, we look at the remarkable journey sunflowers have been on throughout their long history.

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The following music performed by Kevin Macleod Available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

These songs provided by the YouTube audio library

Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G, Movement I (Allegro), BWV 1049 [orig. by JS Bach]
Accralate

These songs provided by the YouTube Audio Library

Vacation Casual
Russian Dance
Simple Gifts
Hickory Hollow

Sources

[1] Pappalardo, Joe. "Sunflowers: The Secret History." Overlook Press, 2008.

[4] Smith BD. "Eastern North America as an Independent Center of Plant Domestication." Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Aug 15;103(33):12223-8. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0604335103. Epub 2006 Aug 7.

[5] Blackman BK, et al. "Sunflower Domestication Alleles Support Single Domestication Center in Eastern North America." Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Aug 23;108(34):14360-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1104853108. Epub 2011 Aug 15.

[6] Park B, Burke JM. "Phylogeography and the Evolutionary History of Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.): Wild Diversity and the Dynamics of Domestication." Genes (Basel). 2020 Feb 29;11(3):266. doi: 10.3390/genes11030266.

[7] Putnam, D.H. et al. "Sunflower." Alternative Field Crops Manual, Purdue University.

[8] Sahagún, Monographs of the School of American Research and the Museum of New Mexico. Book 9: The merchants. Florentine Codex. General History of the Things of New SpainCE Dibble, AJO Anderson (School of American Research and the University of Utah, Sante Fe, 1959 [1569], No 14, Part X.

[9] Kiple, Kenneth F., and Kriemhild Conee Ornelas, editors. "Cambridge World History of Food, Volume 1." Cambridge University Press, 2000.

[14] How old is the sunflower in Mexico? Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Jul 29;105(30):E48; author reply E49-50. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0804588105. Epub 2008 Jul 21.

Picture Attributions:

[dogslobbergardens]

Sunflowers are being used today as cover crops on many farms. Their strong roots can dig into heavy soil, and they create a lot of biomass that's either tilled back into the soil to add organic matter to it, or used to make compost. All of that improves the soil for growing next year's crop of whatever.
They're also useful for reconditioning contaminated soils - they can pull heavy metals and other toxins out of the soil, and then the land will be useful again for other crops.
Naturally, the large flowers attract pollinators and the seeds are a favorite of songbirds. We leave some of our sunflowers standing after the growing season to provide seeds and shelter for native beneficial birds and insects.

[muins]

I grow sunflowers on my corner lot. This year, I planted as many sunflowers as I could in my front yard. The reason is I have heavy soil, and the roots of a sunflower help till the heavy soil.
I like birds and bees and butterflies, and they like my sunflowers. I get mixed reviews from passerbys. Most of the front yards in my neighborhood are well kept lawns, which is unfortunate
since California is a drought stricken place. Eventually, the sunflowers will give way to rose bushes, since roses like hard soil. I also planted various gourds, because I like gourds. I plan to
make bird houses out of them. Maybe paint a few. I plant the tall sunflowers to thwart the feral cats jumping at the birds who feed off of the sunflowers. These birds are frightened of me,
and fly away when I open the front door. But, if I whistle a tune, they stick around to listen, and eventually resume feeding off the sunflowers as I whistle.

[drizzlingrose]

I gotta say how much I love the food history series, I don't watch many videos with my mom but this is one show we both enjoy watching together, thank you for your continued effort to make these <3

[breadman]

My only experience using sunflower oil was a college project where we made a 3d printer that used oil. Sunflower oil had the highest smoke point of commonly available food oils. So it was that hardest to set on fire. Probably makes it good for higher temp cooking.

[joschafinger]

Here in southern Spain, sunflowers are all over the place -in my area, there are loads of plantations. The seeds are one of the most popular snacks here, while the oil does tend to be somewhat looked down upon in a region that also produces vast amounts of olives.

[craigrandle]

Phew. I thought this channel was becoming exclusively Peanut the Capybara lore.

[catboynestormakhno]

Sunflowers are also one of the best crops at clearing up radiation in soil, truly a magical plant

[thedwightguy]

I grow multi-headed sunflowers for three reasons: pollination, bee food, and migrating song birds in BC Canada southbound love the SMALL seeds (along with that little chipmonk). Bees will overnight in the flower head, doubling the range from their hive!! They really don't need much in terms of fertilizer, no matter what soil they're planted in. We have glacial till high alkaline soil, with some ammendments. They thrive. Deer are the only issue; they love them too. As a alkaloid, esp. when deer are sick (worms, bots, lice) they'll eat the sunflowers as a "med".

[hylacinerea]

sunflower oil is so perfect for fried foods. i just cant resist it-- most fast food companies use fry mixes containing it. 70% of all calories consumed globally come from crops originating from the americas.

[adriennefloreen]

It's cool that you mentioned helianthus tuberosus (Jerusalem artichokes or sun chokes) because I planted some in a bathtub sized plastic pot in my driveway. If you do this the roots divide underground like potatoes. Then you will have a bathtub full of the small edible roots, if anyone hasn't seen one they're like the 2 inches long and they look like a bumpy small potato. If anyone sees these being sold at an organic grocery store or farmers market, you should buy some and plant a few of them. You can eat them raw, which is what I do, or cook them however you want. One of my friends actually microwaves them until they're soft and eats them with butter.

[jovanweismiller]

Having spent many long, hot, miserable hours chopping wild sunflowers out of corn and milo fields as a boy, I found this very informative. I grew up in Kansas. Despite the fact that the sunflower is the official state flower and its nickname is the 'Sunflower State', it is consider a noxious weed in Kansas. LOL!

[kelilahsimone]

Not only did I not know that Sunflowers were native to North America but my German great grandparents were some of the Volga Germans who immigrated to Canada 🇨🇦 where I was born. 🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻Mind Blown 😮

[LoisThiessen]

An interesting fact about sunflowers is that the blooms turn to follow the sun throughout the day. If you look at a ripe sunflower head, you will see that the stalk is twisted as a result of this phenomenon.

[kristinahuchison]

I just love sunflowers! They’re my favorite flower and I love growing all sorts of different colors! I read that different varieties of sunflowers were actually native in other areas of the world. Only problem is when they make their seeds, gold finches and other birds like to eat them, so you have to save the seeds for next year. I normally have tall ones, but I have quite a few short ones that aren’t more than 2 ft. But yeah I believe sunflower oil is actually very healthy too. I even read somewhere they help reduce radiation. Sunflowers are just so amazing and beautiful! 🌻 💛💚

[alexanderscherer]

I literally shook with excitement when I saw the new video dropped. LOVE this channel!

[TheMuskokaman]

Love sunflowers. I grow them every year next to my house. My Mammoth Russians grew to a height of 15' even, 2 years ago. So I'm trying Pike's peak this year to see if I can beat my old record. Right now at 1 month they are between 2' & 3' tall so who knows what another 75 days will bring..

[Susan.I]

I didn’t know sunflowers were native to North America. Ours are growing wonderfully!!

[hylacinerea]

sunflower oil is also important to many with dietary allergies, olive oil is not perfect for frying many foods. and if someone is allergic to corn, peanut, and soy-- sunflower is the next, and often only option.

[philhenderson]

You can’t do a real history of sunflower seeds without a mention of David Der Hairabedian. Founder of David and Sons (now David) Sunflower Seeds. His packages were carried all over Europe by allied troops in WWII.

[francescharters]

I've been growing sunflowers for a long time They are 1 of my favorite flowers The video was really informative thank you!