Sunflower

Sunflower

Sunflower (scientific name: Helianthus annuus L.; English Name: sunflowers): it is a plant of platycodonta, Compositae and sunflower genus. It's named because the inflorescence rotates with the sun. Annual herb, 1-3.5 m high, up to 9 m high. Stem erect, round, angular, hard, covered with white hirsute hairs. Leaves broadly ovate, usually alternate, apex acute or acuminate, with basal 3-veined, margin coarsely serrate, both sides rough, hairy, long stalked. Capitate inflorescence, 10-30 cm in diam., solitary at stem apex or branch end. Involucral bracts multilayer, leaf quality, imbricate arrangement, hirsute, summer flowering, inflorescence edge with neutral yellow ligulate flowers, fruitless. The middle part of inflorescence is bisexual tubular flower, brown or purple, which can bear fruit. Achene, oblong ovate, with lignified rind, gray or black, is called sunflower seed.

Wild sunflower habitat is mainly grassland and dry, open areas. They grow along roadsides, fields, desert margins and grasslands. It grows best in sunny, humid or disturbed areas. Native to South America, the domesticated species were brought to Europe from North America by Spanish in 1510, and were initially used for ornamental purposes. At the end of the 19th century, it was led back to North America from Russia. It has been cultivated all over the world and in China. Through artificial cultivation, many varieties have been formed in different habitats, especially in the size, color and shape of capitulum and achene. It is the best material for comprehensive utilization.

It is mainly divided into two categories, edible and ornamental. Sunflower seed is called sunflower seed. It has high oil content and is semi dry oil. It tastes delicious and can be eaten. Flower heads, seed shells and stalks can be used as feedstuffs and industrial raw materials, such as artificial silk and paper pulp. Flower heads are also used for medicine.

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History of Botany

name

Sunflower, also known as Chaoyang Hua, is named because its flowers often face the sun. The English name "sunflower" is not because of its sunny nature, but because of its yellow flowers like the sun. The word sunflower was borrowed from Latin Flos Solis in the 16th-17th century. The French, Italian and Spanish names of sunflower, tournesol, GIRASOL and GIRASOL, are also named based on the characteristic of "sunflower", just like the Chinese names.

As a matter of fact, sunflower is one of the crops with the most aliases in Chinese, which has become a classic example of the phenomenon of synonyms between dialects. It is mentioned in the classic textbook outline of linguistics of Peking University that It's also called "sunflower" in Chinese dialects. Tangshan, Hebei Province, is called "suntouzhuan", Chengde is called "Chaoyang Zhuan", Renqiu is called "wangtianzhuan", Jinan, Shandong is called "Chaoyang Hua", Changle is called "sunflower", Juxian is called "zhuanrikui", Qixia is called "zhuanrilian", Shaoyang, Hunan is called "pantouguazi", and so on. "

Although there are so many nicknames, "sunflower" won in the end and became the common name of this crop in the whole Chinese world. The name was first mentioned in Wen Zhenheng's Chronicles of the long things, a book in the late Ming Dynasty, and later in Chen Jianzi's Huajing in the Qing Dynasty. Obviously, "sunflower" is a new name which uses the ancient plant name "sunflower".

world

Sunflower is one of several plants planted by Native Americans in prehistoric North America. It is a part of the agricultural complex in eastern North America. Although it is generally believed that sunflowers were first domesticated in what is now the southeastern United States, about 5000 years ago. But there is evidence that the species was first domesticated in Mexico in 2600 BC. The crops were found at the San Andres excavation site in Tabasco, Mexico. The first known example of completely domesticated sunflowers in the United States has been found in Tennessee, dating back to around 2300 BC. Other very early examples come from rock sites in eastern Kentucky. Many Native Americans use sunflowers as their symbol of the sun god, including the Aztecs and the ottomi in Mexico and the Incas in South America. Sunflower is a common crop in the whole North American Indian tribe. There is evidence that this plant was planted by American Indians in contemporary Arizona and New Mexico around 3000 BC. Some archaeologists believe that sunflowers may have been domesticated before corn.

In 1510, early Spanish explorers encountered sunflowers in America and transported their seeds back to Europe. It is known that among the four domesticated plants in the eastern continent of the United States, sunflower has become an important agricultural commodity.

In the 18th century, the use of sunflower oil became very popular in Russia, especially among members of the Russian Orthodox Church, because according to some fasting traditions, sunflower oil was one of the few oils allowed in Lent. In the early 19th century, sunflowers were first commercialized in Alexeyevka village in Voronezh province by Daniil bokaryov, a businessman who developed a technology suitable for large-scale cultivation and spread it rapidly. Since then, the town's emblem has included the sunflower image.

The sunflower is native to North America, but commercialization occurs in Russia. It was not until modern times that sunflower plants returned to North America as a cultivated crop. However, the American Indians first domesticated the plant into a single plant. The seed color is various, including black, white, red and black and white stripes.

This exotic North American plant was brought to Europe by Spanish explorers around 1500. The plant is widely spread in modern Western Europe, mainly as an ornamental plant, but some medicinal plants have been developed. By 1716, the British patent was granted the right to extract oil from sunflower seeds.

Sunflowers became very popular as cultivated plants in the 18th century. Most of the credit goes to Peter the great of Russia. The plant was originally used as an ornamental plant, but by 1769, the literature mentioned that it could produce sunflowers for growing edible oil. By 1830, sunflower oil was produced on a commercial scale. The Russian Orthodox Church has increased the popularity of sunflower oil by banning the consumption of most of its edible oils during the lent period. Because sunflower oil was not banned, it was immediately welcomed as a food.

By the early 19th century, Russian farmers had grown more than 2 million acres of sunflowers. During this period, two specific types were identified: oil products for edible oil production and two types for direct human consumption. The government research program was implemented. V.S. pustovoit has carried out a very successful breeding program in Krasnodar, which has significantly increased the content and yield of edible oil. The world's most prestigious sunflower science award is known as the "pustovoit award.".

By the end of the 19th century, Russian sunflower seeds entered the United States. By 1880, seed companies promoted "mammoth Russian" sunflower seeds in their product leaflets. This special seed name was still available in the U.S. market in 1970, almost 100 years ago. The source of the seed movement that spread to North America may have been brought by Russian immigrants. In the United States, the first commercial use of sunflower crops was for poultry silage. In 1926, the Missouri sunflower Growers Association participated in the first process of processing sunflower seeds into oil.

Canada began to implement the first official government Sunflower Breeding Program in 1930. The basic plant breeding materials used came from the Mennonite garden. Due to the demand of edible oil, the planting area is expanding. By 1946, Canadian farmers had built a small crushing plant. Planting areas also spread to Minnesota and North Dakota. In 1964, the Canadian government authorized the planting of peredovik, a Russian variety with high yield and high oil content. Increased acreage in the United States has a commercial interest in sunflower oil production. The hybrid technology of sunflower in the mid-1970s provided additional yield and edible oil enhancement as well as disease resistance.

Due to the strong demand for sunflower oil in Europe, the planting area in the United States was upgraded to more than 5 million hectares in the late 1970s. Russia's sunflower oil exports over the past few decades have stimulated this European demand. In the meantime, animal fats such as tallow used for cooking are negatively affected by cholesterol problems. However, Russians are unable to meet growing demand, and European companies are also focusing on emerging industries in the United States. Europeans import sunflower seeds and crush them in European factories. Today, Western Europe is still a large consumer of sunflower oil, but it depends on its own production. The United States exports sunflower oil to Europe.

China

At the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century, the Spanish or Dutch spread sunflower seeds to Nanyang, then from Vietnam to Yunnan, and then gradually from southwest to north. It was introduced into northern China from Russia about 100 years ago.

Sunflower was introduced into China in the middle of Ming Dynasty. Besides the southeast coast, it may also be introduced from the southwest frontier. Sunflower pattern was discovered in Jingzi mountain, Xin'an, Henan Province in 1993

Chinese PinYin : Xiang Ri Kui