Sunflower: the blooming creature

Sunflower is used to refer all plants of the genus Helianthus, an annual plant native to the Americas in the family Asteraceae. The stem of the flower can grow as high as 3 metres tall, with the flower head reaching up to 30 cm in diameter with the ‘large’ seeds.

A flower is normally a head - formally composite flower - of numerous flowers crowded together. The outer flowers are the ray florets and can be yellow, maroon, orange, or other colors, and are sterile. The florets inside the circular head are called disc florets. The disc florets mature into what are traditionally called “sunflower seeds”, but are actually the fruit of the plant.

Florets

The florets within this cluster are arranged spirally. Typically each floret is oriented toward the next by approximately the golden angle, producing a pattern of interconnecting spirals where the number of left spirals and the number of right spirals are successive Fibonacci numbers.

Motor cells

Faces of most sunflowers are turned towards the east at the sunrise. They move to track the sun from east to west during the daytime, while at night they come back to an eastward orientation.

This motion is performed by motor cells in the pulvinus, a flexible segment of the stem just below the bud. As the bud stage completes, the stem becomes solid and reaches the blooming stage.

The blooming Sunflowers are not heliotropic anymore. The stem has frozen, typically in an eastward orientation. The stem and leaves gradually loose their green colour.

The wild sunflower is not normally sun-friendly. Its flowering heads sometimes face many directions in maturing process. However, the leaves typically exhibit some heliotropism. How sunflower was first domesticated is debatable. The first known example is discovered at the Hayes site in Tennessee. The sunflower needs sun essentially to grow well, especially when grown in fertile, moist and well-drained soil.

Sunflower oil is extracted from the seeds and is best used for cooking. It is also used as a carrier oil and to produce biodiesel; the process is less expensive than the olive product.

The cake remaining after the seeds have been processed for oil is used as a livestock feed. Some recently developed cultivars have drooping heads.

These cultivars are less attractive to gardeners growing the flowers as ornamental plants, but appeal to farmers, because they reduce bird damage and losses from some plant diseases. Sunflowers also produce latex and are the subject of experiments to improve their suitability as an alternative crop for producing hypoallergenic rubber.

Sunflower “whole seed” (fruit) are sold as a snack food after roasting within heated ovens with or without salt added.

Sunflowers can be processed into a peanut butter alternative, Sunbutter, especially in China, Russia, the United States, the Middle East and Europe. It is also sold as food for birds and can be used directly in cooking and salads.

Oil

Sunflower oil was very popular for some time in Europe. It was particularly one of the oils that was not prohibited during Lent in Russia. It is taken as weed for growing crops.

The variety will grow in corn and soybean fields, but considered unwanted. Commercially available sunflower varieties contain from 39 to 49% oil in the seed. In 1985-86, sunflower seed was the third largest source of vegetable oil worldwide, following soybean and palm.

The growth of sunflower as an oilseed crop has rivaled that of soybean, with both increasing production over 6-fold since the 1930s.

Sunflower accounts for about 14% of the world production of seed oils (6.9 million metric tons in 1985-86) and about 7% of the oilcake and meal produced from oilseeds. Europe and Russia produce over 60% of the world’s sunflowers.

The most serious diseases of sunflower are caused by fungi.

The major diseases include rust, downy mildew, verticillium wilt, sclerotinia stalk and head rot, phoma black stem and leaf spot.

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Green fingers:

Araliya; There’s Beauty!

Ravindhu Mahendra

Once upon a time there was a beautiful girl who lived on her own by a temple. In her village everyone called her Beauty. Beauty’s spirit was as beautiful as her features.

Two brothers fell in love with her at the same time without telling each other about their feelings towards Beauty. The older brother approached her first. By the time the younger brother approached her it was already too late as she was in love with the older brother.

Beauty

In a jealous rage, the younger brother killed his sibling so that he could have Beauty for himself. No one knew anything about the older brother’s death and Beauty kept waiting for him to return. She had great news to reveal to her new husband as she was carrying his baby.

The younger brother kept wooing her with no success and he lost his temper. Beauty then disappeared. Everyone missed her and searched for her. No one knew what had happened apart from the sky and earth. They both couldn’t keep silent any longer. Sky produced no rain therefore earth produced no green.

The drought burnt everything leaving no soul. No hope of rain, nowhere to find water, the villagers all gathered together and started chanting in the temple. No flowers, empty hands rose for deliverance.

White flowers

A lady appeared with a bunch of white flowers but no one recognised her as a veil of flowers disguised her face. She sprinkled the flowers onto the crowd so they could offer them to the Buddha.

The head monk approached her to find out where the flowers had come from. She pointed towards a beautiful young tree next to the temple grounds. The monk thought that it was an omen to find water, so he asked the people to dig by the tree.

Spirit

They found Beauty’s dead body buried under it. At that very moment thunder broke the sky and rain started to pour. The lady who brought the flowers vanished not even leaving a single foot print. The village people gradually started to realise that the dead woman and the spirit were the same. The younger brother who had killed Beauty was also there to witness this.

He started to shiver in fear and grabbed the tree so he would not fall down. A branch of the tree was snapped by the lightning. Milky droplets of sap fell into his eyes. He wasn’t blinded but from that day on he could see no more beauty.

“The lady is there!” people shouted as they pointed at the tree. ARA stands to point there and LIYA stands for a lady in Sinhala. Araliya tree carries milky sap; if you hurt the tree it will weep as if to take your heart out.

According to the legend, Beauty still carries milk for her unborn child and is looking for her husband as she reminds us not to destroy beauty by greed.

Temple flower is another name for Araliya (Plumiera rubra). This legend refers to the common white broad leaved temple tree but there are so many kinds which exist in many colours, shapes, sizes and perfumes. Araliya tree is a must have as it is the least fussy plant for any garden.

If you can, let it have bit of fertile soil, water and plenty of sunlight and it will grow well. They tend to like dry soil more than boggy as they’ve adapted themselves for the dry zone. During the dry season they loose their leaves and stay dormant for a long period.

Araliya can be propagated by cuttings and hard wood cuttings root better than soft ones. Cuttings should be laid to dry for a while before planting. No matter how small your garden you can still grow a temple tree. You can even grow it in a pot. Although it wouldn’t perform as a ground grown tree it will still cheer you up with at least a few flowers, almost every day of the year if you don’t hurt the main cluster.

Take your time, forget everything you are doing for a moment, take a deep breath filled with heavenly perfume, and then get lost in Beauty’s beauty, you will be lost in a smile of Mother Nature for sure.

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Shoot for fun ’n’ fame

“…and do you Whiskers take Pussywillow to be your lawful wedded wife?”

“There comes a time when probably everyone of us has to pass this phase in life. Fortunately for me, I found the purrrrfect partner in little Miss Pussywillow. Life couldn’t be lovelier!”

“Isn’t he one handsome puss? I am the luckiest cat alive and the envy of all the other cats in the alley. From plain Pussywillow to Princess Whiskers Mousehunter.

This moment is to be cherished forever.”

Sweet memories. Whiskers looks like the perfect gentleman and isn’t Pussywillow the most beautiful bride you ever feasted your eyes on? Is it part of the Avurudu fancy dress act or is this for real? Whatever it is it looks as if these two cats are about to embark on the longest sentence of their life!

Ruwini J