goingreen serious sunflower

Sunflower seeds

Sweet, delicious and nutty sunflower seeds are loved as delicious snacks by humans and birds alike. The seeds are mainly employed in the extraction of edible oil all over the world. They, however, are also used as food and are rich source of essential fatty acids, minerals and vitamins.
Sunflower plant is a tall, erect, herbaceous annual plant belonging to the family of Asteraceae of the genus Helianthus. Its botanical name is Helianthus annuus. It is native to Middle American region from where it spread as an important commercial crop all over the world by the European explorers. At present Russian Union, China, The USA, and Argentina are the leading producers of sunflower crop.




Sunflower flourishes well in well-drained moist limey soil. The plant prefers good sunlight. Domesticated varieties bear single large flower head at the top. Unlike its domestic cultivar type, wild sunflower exhibits several branches with each branch ending with their own individual flower head. The flower head in sunflower plant consists of two types of flowers. While its perimeter consists of sterile yellow color large petals (ray flowers), the central disk is made of numerous small fertile flowers arranged in concentric whorls, which subsequently convert to achenes (seeds).
Sunflower seeds are about 6 mm to 10 mm in length and feature conical shape with smooth surface. Their outer coat (hull) is black in color with gray-white edible kernel inside. Each sunflower head may cantain several hundreds of edible oil seeds.