The world is filled up with many beautiful things, big things and small things. This world will not leave you short of anything to be amazed at. The simple things in life can sometimes be the things that leave you fascinated beyond belief. Flowers are simple or they appear to be but are more complex than meet the eye. Filling the world with more than a couple thousand types coming in different shapes and sizes, flowers are a very common yet dazzling sight of beauty. One out of the many types of flowers is the sunflower. People might know of it as one of most commonly seen flowers of the world but what they do not know are these facts about sunflowers.

FACT: 1

Sunflowers are one of the tallest flowers there are. In the right conditions, they can grow very long very fast. On an average, sunflowers can grow from 8 to 12 feet and the tallest sunflower is stated to be a 27 foot sun flower in Germany that holds the Guinness world record in the world.

FACT: 2

Sunflower may look like one flower but in truth are many small flowers combined together to form one flower. The small flowers inside the one large flower are called flowerets.

FACT: 3

There are two types of sunflower seeds. One that we use to extract oil from and use in our daily life to aid in our cooking and the other type of seeds which are called striped seeds that are used to feed birds sometimes.

FACT: 4

Sunflowers can remove toxins from the ground such as arsenic and uranium and there have been plenty of examples where this has happened.

FACT: 5

The city of Kansas in the United States of America is known as the sunflower state only because of its vast and abundant presence and has lush fields full of sunflowers as far as the eye can see. And in Ukraine, the sunflower is the national flower of that country.

FACT: 6

The Indians that lived in America in the old times used sunflowers for food, dyes and medical purposes long before a scientific method was developed for these things and it is said that sunflowers have one of the most beneficial purposes to mankind.

FACT: 7

There is not just one sunflower. There are many types of it. Infact almost around a hundred types of sunflowers have been discovered. Cross pollination has led to that and these types are all closely related but different in one or two aspects.

FACT: 8

The petals of the sunflower can grow to a length of about a foot across. This can be found in the mammoth Russian. A type of sunflower commonly found in many areas. It has bright yellow petals and usually grows up to about 10 feet in length.

FACT: 9

Heliotropism is the process in which something follows the sun and moves according to its direction. One of the main examples to be found of this motion is the sunflower. From east to west, it moves its head following the sun. That is where it received its name from and the Greek word Helios means sun which makes the meaning even clearer.

FACT: 10

Sunflower oil is not only good for cooking stuff in but is also very healthy. While containing vitamin A and vitamin D, it also has other valuable minerals such as calcium and iron which make it a flower that is not only pretty but also very beneficial to all. One of the main reasons why birds and butterflies are attracted to it so much.