Driving down the roads in North Dakota this time of year, particularly gravel roads, one is likely to occasionally see a sunflower in bloom with broad leaves, producing a flower head, and growing to around 3 to 6 feet tall. That is probably the common sunflower (Helianthus annuus), the same species that is grown in the sunflower fields.
The native range for the common sunflower is the plains, prairies, and similar habitats over much of the United States, Canada, and northern Mexico. It is widespread in the Northern Great Plains where it is commonly found on roadsides, waste places, disturbed areas, and the like.
Common sunflower is a rough and hairy annual plant that grows to around 2 feet tall, or perhaps as much at 8 feet or even more, particularly in some commercial varieties. The leaves are often more than 4 inches long, broad, and almost rectangular in shape.
The common sunflower has a long history of human use, with documentation of its use going back to at least the 1600s, and probably much earlier.
The Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara cultivated the plant and ate the seeds raw. They also pounded them, along with other seeds or fruits, to make a sort of cake that was then dried in the sun to be eaten later. The Lakota boiled the seeds to get the oil which was used as a skin lotion and hairdressing, and the Teton Dakota boiled the sunflower heads to use as a treatment for pulmonary problems.
By around the 1500s, European explorers brought back seeds to Europe where varieties with seeds containing high oil content were developed. Today, sunflowers are commercially grown over much of the globe, largely for the production of sunflower oil for cooking, livestock feed, confectionary use, and as an ornamental.
It is interesting to note that there are around 70 species of sunflowers native to North, Central, and South America, and a half dozen or so species are native to North Dakota. And the common sunflower is one of a handful of crops developed from plants native to North America.
So, as you travel about, be on the lookout for this wild form of the commercial sunflower with its long history of human utility.
