Sunflower Facts: 20 Amazing Facts About Sunflower

Get to know about these amazing and inspiring sunflower facts that can make your day blissful.

Sunflower is a very beautiful flowering plant from Daisy family. Gardeners love to have sunflowers in their garden and these beautiful flowers have great importance in agriculture too!

Well along with its beauty there are lot of amazing facts associated with sunflowers that I am going to share in this article. Keep reading till last to get surprised by these amazing facts.

20 Amazing Sunflower Facts

1. Sunflower plant originated in America. But the domestication started 3000 to 5000 years ago by native Americans.
   
2. During the early days of domestication, native Americans use sunflower plant as a source of seeds. Later on world travellers introduced sunflower plant to Europe during 16th century and then Russia.
   
3. Sunflower seeds have high nutritive value. It contains phenolic acids, flavonoids, and vitamins.
   
4. Sunflower exhibit heliotropism, i.e. young sunflower heads tracks the direction of the sun during early daytime. This helps sunflower plant to increase rate of photosynthesis and attract pollinators.
   
5. A single flower of sunflower can have around 2000 seeds. So if you grow one sunflower plant then in the next season you can grow so many!
   
6. A single sunflower head is not only a single flower but it is a combination of 2000 tiny flowers around the centre.
   
7. Birds love to eat sunflower seeds, therefore bird lovers use dried sunflower heads as a natural bird feeder.
   
8. Sunflowers are generally yellow in colour, but few varieties can also be red or purple in colour.
   
9. The tallest sunflower plant in the world so far has grown up to 30 feet in height.
   
10. After removing seeds from the dried sunflower heads, you can use them as disposable scrubbing pads.
    
    
    
    
    
    

Sunflower Oil Nutrition Facts

1. Oil extracted from sunflower seeds can not catch fire as it is non-volatile.
   
2. People use sunflower oil in food as well as for cosmetic formulations because Linoleic acid present in oil have anti-inflammatory effect.
   
3. Sunflower oil is considered a heart healthy oil as it is high in mono and poly saturated fats.
   
4. One table spoon of sunflower oil has 0 gram carbohydrates, 14 grams fat, and about 120 calories.
   
5. In the year 2018, Ukraine and Russia produced around 53% of the world’s total sunflower oil. In that year the total production of sunflower oil in the world was around 18 million tonnes.
   
   
   
   
   
   

Sunflower Seeds Nutrition Facts

1. Humans and birds can consume sunflower seeds due to its nutritional value.
2. Sunflower seeds contain good amount of healthy fats, proteins, as well as antioxidants. However it also have Vitamin B1 and E.
   
3. Sunflower seeds have good amount of minerals, therefore consuming them can result in having healthy skin and bones.
   
4. 100 grams of sunflower seeds can give 580 calories, 51 grams of fat, 21 grams of protein, and 20 grams of carbohydrates.
   
5. Some researches also say that consuming sunflower seeds can help in boosting energy levels.