Wild Indigenous Sunflowers of Kansas

       Sunflowers fill the roadside of Kansas as they make their presence known when they bloom late in July and have its full bloom in the month of September. Helianthus annuus are wild indigenous sunflowers of Kansas and it is the state flower of the region as well. These flowers usually grow in fields and along the roads of the Great Plains. Goldenrods like the sunflower are also indigenous flowers Kansas.
With the abundance of wild native sunflower in the state of Kansas, it was adopted and declared as the official flower of the state of Kansas during the year 1903. The sunflower remains standing proud as it gives glory to its home state.
Summers in Kansas are hot and dry, but these sunflowers grow very well on this particular climate. They grow from 3 up to ten feet tall, usually with one or more flower heads. This plant produces showy yellow flowers, recognized all over the world. Sunflowers are not mistaken for any other flower because its features surely relates to its name.
A sunflower head is consisted of a small disk with tubular flowers that are surrounded by large fringed petals of bright yellow colors. One single head of a sunflower may measure up to 30 centimeters or more in diameter. This one single head can produce seeds of up to a thousand. Sunflower heads are known to search and face the sunlight all through out the day.
Wild birds feast on sunflower seeds, chickens too. Bees are also known to get nectar from sunflowers. Sometimes, dried stalks of sunflowers are used to create fires.
Seeds collected from sunflowers are very rich in protein. High-quality oils are yielded from these seeds, vegetable oil that is used to make cooking oil and margarine. Sunflower oil is considered third as the world’s most important vegetable oil. Special varieties of oilseed can contain as much as 50% oil and those are small black seeds.
Other varieties of sunflower seeds are striped and larger in size. Some of these are roasted and coated with chocolate as snack food, while some are made into birdseed and blended with other seeds or grains. Sunflower oil, in today’s world is also used as diesel fuel’s replacement.
Because of the many wild and indigenous sunflowers that grow in Kansas, it is dubbed as the Sunflower State of America. For the dry climate of the Great Plains, sunflower makes a very excellent summer crop. Sunflowers have extensive roots that aid them through the summer’s arid condition.
For several years now, the growth of sunflower commercial production had rapidly increased. More and more farmers are interested how to produce these sunflowers. New methods are learned on how to get these flowers into mass production. Currently, the state of Kansas holds 250,000 acres of sunflower fields.
Sunflowers are beautiful, strong and vibrant, features that made this flower known worldwide. But the purpose of these flowers extends to being one important source of our food supply. It is one of the top choices of crops not only in Kansas but in other areas of the northern plain regions like Texas and the Dakotas.