A center of a sunflower blooming in Santa Cruz produces a naturally occurring heart. According to the National Sunflower Association, “It was the American Indian who first domesticated the plant into a single headed plant with a variety of seed colors including black, white, red, and black/white striped. Sunflower was a common crop among American Indian tribes throughout North America. ” Although the wild sunflower is native to North America, commercialization of the plant took place in Russia, and a likely source of this seed movement to North America may have been Russian immigrants. It was only recently that the sunflower plant returned to North America to become a cultivated crop. Archeological evidence suggests that the plant was cultivated by American Indians in present-day Arizona and New Mexico about 5,000 years ago and some archaeologists believe that sunflowers may have been domesticated before corn. There are over 70 species of sunflowers, all belonging to the genus Helianthus, and a sunflower grown in Karst, Nordrheim Westfaken, Germany in 2021 holds the record for being the tallest sunflower in the world measuring 30’1″ in height. (Shmuel Thaler – Santa Cruz Sentinel)
