Do Sunflowers Grow More Than One Flower?

The Sunflower's "Flower"

• The sunflower is a member of the Compositae family, along with 25,000 other species of flowering plants, such as the daisy and the dandelion. In the Compositae family, each single "flower" is made up of hundreds of tiny flowers.

  These floral aggregates are referred to as the head or capitulum. The head consists of aggregates of fertile flowers (florets) surrounded by rays, the petals of the sterile flowers. These rays are the long (often yellow) petals on the outside of the disk. The ray-bearing florets form the outermost ring of the floral disk. The remainder of the florets have petals that are fused into tubes. These flowers will reproduce and form seeds.

Multi-headed Sunflower Varieties.

• Traditionally, cultivated sunflowers have only had one such "head," but many garden varieties are multi-stemmed, with many floral heads. These are often smaller, dwarf varieties such as "Irish Eyes" and are very popular with gardeners. Crop sunflowers are usually single-headed. In addition, wild sunflowers exhibit highly branched stems and usually have multiple floral heads.

Height and Color

• Depending on the species, sunflowers can range in height from 10 inches to 15 feet or more. Giant varieties such as the "Russian Giant" commonly grow 10 feet and have been known to reach even greater heights. Conversely, dwarf varieties such as the "Teddy Bear" rarely exceed 2 feet in height. The blooms can range in color from lemon yellow to bright orange, with some cultivars possessing reddish hues.

Origins and Uses

• An ancient crop, sunflowers are one of the few crop species to have originated in North America. They are thought to have first been cultivated in the eastern United States 4.000 to 5,000 years ago. Today, sunflowers are grown for their edible oil, their seeds (used in bird feed and as a popular snack) and as animal feed.