There is a field of sunflowers near our area just a few steps from my home. These are commercial flowers which you have to cut and pick yourself and pay for the pieces you want. I love to come here when I walk Lily, our chihuahua. Such fields are everywhere whenever there is a vacant plot the farmers plant flowering bulbs to give the neighbourhood a chance to cut fresh flowers at a minimal cost.
Sunflowers are our subject for today, scientifically it is called helianthus, helia for the sun and anthus for the flower. When the flowers are still young, they are capable to face the sun towards the East and would follow the sun to the west in the process called heliotropism... and when a sunflower gets matured and become heavy, it fixes the flower by itself facing the East. The sunflowers originally came from North America and were being used as an edible food ..According to the old indian tribe, the sunflower has a medicinal characteristic that could cure and sooth chest pains as well as pulmonary illnesses.
Below are the macro shots of the disc florets. I had always been interested in those tiny parts of this flower and as you can see in the zoomed images, one huge sunflower could contain 1-2 thousand small disc florets depending on the flower size..... quite amazing these florets (!) located in the center because it is a mixture of stamin (male) and stigma (female). The stamin has filament and pollen producing anthers that gets into the stigma that transported these pollens down to the ovary to meet the ovules and together they produce the seeds.
In summer , I love to add sunflowers to my wildflower arrangements. The sunflower fields are a great sight to see especially when all the flowers are blooming ... a magical feeling of having their golden light conveying peace to the world. If you would like to know more facts on sunflowers, you can read it here.
Camera: Canon EOS 1300D and Samsung J5 with macro extensions
#gardening #sustainability #greenthumb #edible
#food #science #photography
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