The beauty of the sunflower

hello guys meet again with me @ reysablon, meeting this time i will tell you a little about sunflower.

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) is an annual plant of the popular kenikir-kenikiran (Asteraceae), both as an ornamental plant and oil-producing plant. This plant flower is very distinctive: large, usually bright yellow, with a large flower head (diameter can reach 30 cm). This flower is actually a compound interest, composed of hundreds to thousands of small flowers on one bump. Sunflower also has a typical behavior, the flowers are always facing / leaning toward the sun or heliotropisme. The French call it tournesol or "traveler of the Sun". However, this trait is removed in new cultivars for oil production because it consumes a lot of energy and reduces yield.

Sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine and the official flower of the state of Kansas, USA.

The Origin of Sunflower
In the sunflower has been cultivated by the Indians in North America since thousands of years ago. Which then spread to South America and became one food source for Inka residents.

Once conquered by Europeans, sunflowers were introduced to Europe and other parts of the world in the 16th century. Since the 17th century the seeds have been used in a bread mixture or processed as a substitute for coffee and chocolate. For its use as an oil source began pioneered in the 19th century.

Sunflower is very suitable to be planted on fertile and warm soil with enough sunlight. based on the origin of this flower, sunflowers are suitable to be grown in areas with subtropical climates. If planted in the tropics can also but the results will be less than the maximum. if planted in areas with 4 seasons like in europe, australia, japan and some states in america can only be planted in spring and summer only. sunflower planting in the 4 seasons country in winter and autumn should be avoided because sunflower will be difficult to grow.

Sunflower oil
As mentioned in the cultivation group, the utilization of Sun flower is primarily as a source of oil, both food and industry. As a food, sunflower oil is suitable for frying, thickening and mixing salad. Sunflower oil is rich in linoleic acid, an unsaturated fatty acid that is good for human health. Engineering interests want oils with higher levels of oleic acid and there are also sunflower cultivars that produce such quality of oil (containing 80% to 90% oleic acid, while cultivars for food have only 25% oleic acid).

so my explanation of sunflower, may be useful for you.