Back to album

Sunflowers Are Actually Many Tiny Flowers Clustered Together 🌻🌻

One Sunflower Is Actually Thousands of Flowers

 

A field of sunflowers against the blue sky.Credit: Edoardo B/ Shutterstock

Sunflowers were first domesticated from wild plants in America around 1000 BCE and are now common features in front yards. Their defining feature is their gigantic blossoms, or heads, which are 2 to 4 inches wide in the wild and much, much bigger in many home gardens. The widest on record is more than 32 inches in diameter.

These heads may look like single giant flowers, but they’re actually thousands of tiny florets clustered together. What appear to be petals are actually various types of flowers. Daisies are in the same family, and have a really similar structure: a cluster of many disk florets at the center with a burst of ray florets along the perimeter.

324 views
18 faves
1 comment
Uploaded on June 10, 2024
Taken on August 19, 2018