Ah
Sunflower, weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the
sun;
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the
traveller's journey is done;
Where the Youth pined away with
desire,
And the pale virgin shrouded in snow,
Arise from their
graves, and aspire
Where my Sunflower wishes to go!
William
Blake
Have
you recently ate chips (fried or oven)? Crisps Maybe? Possibly even
one of those grain bars which claim to make you live forever if you
eat enough of them? Perhaps you use a vegetable oil spread on your
toast, or maybe you fling the odd fish fingers in batter into the
oven every so often. Maybe you are interested in bio-fuels and their
role in the environment, or maybe even indulged yourself by
scribbling on a piece of paper or two. You may even be an admirer of
the artistry of Vincent Van Gogh...
If
so, you are most certainly interested in September’s plant of
the month; the noble Sunflower.
Sunflower
(Helianthus annuus) is an annual plant native to the
Americas. It possesses a large inflorescence (flowering head). The
sunflower is named after its huge, fiery blooms, whose shape and
image is often used to depict the sun. It has a rough, hairy stem,
broad, coarsely toothed, rough leaves and circular heads of flowers.
The heads consist of many individual flowers which mature into seeds,
often in the hundreds, on a receptacle base. Sunflower seeds were
brought to Europe in the 16th century.
The Sunflower was
probably first introduced to Europe through Spain, and spread through
Europe as a curiosity until it reached Russia where it was readily
adapted.
Here
at Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens, we have a collection of very
impressive specimens standing erect in the Batty Langley Kitchen
Garden.
Batty appears to be silent on the issue of sunflowers;
however in 1881 in the book 'The English Flower Garden' Henry A
Bright waxes lyrical about them thus:
'Sunflowers, also in clumps, should stand out here and there, and though the modern sceptics
may tell us that this American plant cannot be the Clytie of Grecian story, it amply vindicates
its name by its large discs, surrounded by golden rays.'
To grow best, sunflowers need full
sun. They grow best in fertile, moist, well-drained soil with heavy
mulch. In commercial planting, seeds are planted 45cm (1.5ft) apart
and 2.5cm (1 inch) deep. Sunflower "whole seed" (fruit) are
sold as a snack food, raw or after roasting in ovens, with or without
salt and/or seasonings added. Sunflowers can be processed into a
peanut butter alternative, sunflower butter. In Germany, it is mixed
with rye flour to make Sonnenblumenkernbrot (literally:
sunflower whole seed bread), which is quite popular in
German-speaking Europe. It is also sold as food for birds and can be
used directly in cooking and salads. American Indians had multiple
uses for sunflowers in the past, such as in bread, medical ointments,
dyes and body paints.
Sunflower oil,
extracted from the seeds, is used for cooking, as a carrier oil and
to produce margarine and biodiesel, as it is cheaper than olive oil.
A range of sunflower varieties exist with differing fatty acid
compositions; some 'high oleic' types contain a higher level of
monounsaturated fats in their oil than even olive oil.
The
cake remaining after the seeds have been processed for oil is used as
a livestock feed. Some recently developed cultivars have drooping
heads. These cultivars are less attractive to gardeners growing the
flowers as ornamental plants, but appeal to farmers, because they
reduce bird damage and losses from some plant diseases. Sunflowers
also produce latex, and are the subject of experiments to improve
their suitability as an alternative crop for producing hypoallergenic
rubber.
Sunflowers can be
used in phytoremediation to extract toxic ingredients from soil, such
as lead, arsenic and uranium. They were used to remove caesium-137
and strontium-90 from a nearby pond after the Chernobyl disaster, and
a similar campaign was mounted in response to the Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear disaster.
Sunflower seeds are
more commonly eaten as a healthy snack than as part of a meal. They
can also be used as garnishes or ingredients in various recipes. The
seeds may be sold as in-shell seeds or de hulled kernels. The seeds
can also be sprouted and eaten in salads. However, eating expired
sunflower seeds may cause stomach irritation such as bloating or
diarrhoea due to the rotting of the seed.
When in-shell seeds
are processed, they are first dried. Afterwards, they may also be
roasted or dusted with salt or flour for preservation of flavour.
De-hulling is commonly performed by cracking the hull with one's
teeth and spitting it out while keeping the kernel in the mouth and
eating it.
In-shell sunflower
seeds are particularly popular in Mediterranean and Asian countries,
including Egypt, Syria, Israel, Turkey, and Malaysia. In Turkey,
Syria and Israel they can be bought freshly roasted in shops and
markets and are a common stadium food, while in Malaysia they can be
bought freshly packed in various roasted flavors. They are also
popular in countries worldwide including Russia, Poland, Ukraine,
Bulgaria, Romania, Spain, China, Morocco, Iran, Canada and the United
States.
The arrangement of
seeds on a sunflower head has also been the cause of mathematical
interest because of the arrangement in both
the Fibonacci sequence and the Golden mean. Those who are interested
in this aspect should click on
http://www.popmath.org.uk/rpamaths/rpampages/sunflower.html
where your brain will be suitably entertained.
Folklore
Legend has it….
- that a sunflower
planted in your yard will bring you good luck.
- that a sunflower
cut at sunset will bring you good luck the next day.
- that if you want
know the truth in any situation, sleep with a sunflower under your
bed.
- to protect against
small pox, wear sunflower seeds around your neck.
The
story that a sunflower will track the path of the sun during the day
however is sadly without foundation, fun though it is. The story was
debunked as early as 1597 by the English botanist John Gerard, but as
usual such stories have a lives of their own.
The
art of Vincent Van Gogh has done more in the 20th and 21st
Centuries to make the sunflower famous than just about anything else.
His series of Sunflower paintings can be viewed by clicking on this
link:
National Gallery, London.
So
that's our fab plant of the month for September, providing much food
for both the body and mind. Pay them a visit in the Batty Langley
Kitchen Garden. You can hardly miss them!
Thanks
to
Gordon
Sammons
Wikipedia
Popmath
The photographs by Graham High are licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
