Where did the sunflower, which is full of treasures, come from? Its domestication history began 3,000 years ago

As an ancient snack, sunflower seeds are widely loved by Chinese people.

At present, China has become the world's major producer of edible sunflowers, and the sunflower planting areas are also spread across 10 provinces in the north. The province with the largest sunflower planting area is the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, which accounts for almost 75% of the total sunflower planting area in the country. Chinese people love sunflowers. They not only regard it as a simple snack, but also add it to dishes and even as an indispensable ingredient in some cakes. However, sunflowers are not native to China. The real home of sunflowers is actually in North America, specifically the southeastern region of the United States today.

Speaking of the domestication history of sunflowers, it can be traced back to about 3,000 years ago.

The earliest wild sunflowers were very different from the sunflowers we see today. Wild sunflowers had many branches, and each branch would produce a relatively small inflorescence, which was purple-red in color, and the fruits were much smaller than the current sunflower seeds. Later, the ancient Indians began to domesticate this plant. After countless generations of breeding, the sunflower gradually changed. Although the branches still existed, they no longer bloomed. Each sunflower only had one flower, and the flowers became much larger. The color of the ligulate flowers also gradually changed from purple-red to yellow.

What are ligulate flowers?

The sunflower disk we see is actually a head inflorescence composed of multiple flowers. The head inflorescence is divided into two types of petal-shaped flowers: tongue-shaped and tubular. The tongue-shaped flowers are petal-like objects on the outer circle of the disk, while the tubular flowers are located in the center of the disk. The tongue-shaped flowers do not bear fruit, while the tubular flowers can produce delicious sunflower seeds. At the end of the 15th century, the Spaniards landed on the American continent. The sunflower domesticated by the ancient Indians immediately attracted their attention. However, the Spaniards were not attracted by the deliciousness of the sunflower seeds, but by the beautiful appearance of the sunflower.

So the sunflower was brought back to Europe and soon became a popular ornamental flower in Europe.

No matter what it is, as long as time goes by, humans will have a question: Can we eat it? So in the early 18th century, Europeans began to try to use sunflower flowers to make salads. Soon after, sunflowers were introduced to Russia, and the Russians first planted this plant in the field and found that sunflower seeds were a raw material for oil extraction. So the Russians established a sunflower seed oil extraction workshop and continued to select and breed for more than a century, eventually cultivating a variety of sunflower varieties that are rich in oil.

When was sunflower introduced to my country?

It is difficult to find accurate records on this issue, but the earliest mention of sunflowers in literature dates back to the Ming Dynasty. However, the plant was not originally named sunflower. It had many names, such as sunflower, sunflower, passionflower, etc. It was probably named sunflower in the late Ming Dynasty. When sunflowers were first introduced to my country, they were actually cultivated as ornamental plants. It was not until the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty that there were records of the consumption of sunflower seeds.

The sunflower is a treasure from head to toe.

Its flower disk is of great ornamental value, and sunflower seeds are a popular snack. They can also be used to extract oil. Even the stems of sunflowers can be used for cooking or made into feed for livestock. There are many varieties of sunflowers, and different varieties have different uses. For example, the varieties suitable for eating are different from those suitable for extracting oil. In my country, the largest planting area is the variety of sunflower used for eating. The reason why the sunflower is named sunflower is because its flower disk will chase the sun, and the reason for chasing the sun is that its rhizome contains a light-avoiding auxin. When encountering sunlight, it will hide on the backlit side, so the flower disk faces the sun. However, when the sunflower seeds are mature, the flower disk will no longer rotate.

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