Sunflower Facts

Modesto Bee

Did you know:

• In Peru, the Aztecs worshiped sunflowers. They placed sunflower images made of gold in their temples, and crowned princesses in the bright yellow flowers.
  
• Sunflowers made their way to Europe in the early 1500s. They were used for gifts, carried by Spanish settlers returning home.
  
• Russian Czar Peter the Great (1672-1725) liked sunflowers so much that when he saw them in Holland, he took seeds back to Russia. By the 1700s, sunflower seeds were being eaten all over Russia.
  
• In many parts of Europe, sunflowers provide leaves for smoking, flower buds for salads, flowers for dyes and oil for cooking.

(Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service, Sunflower Research Unit, and The Sunflower Stop website: jstait.addr.com/sunflowers.)