Sunflower History

Around the world, the sunflower is the only crop harvested for seed that was domesticated in the United States. Sunflower was a common crop among Native American tribes throughout North America. Evidence suggests that Native Americans were cultivating sunflowers in the Four Corners area of the southwestern United States about 3,000 B.C. Sunflower seeds were ground or pounded into flour, cracked and eaten as snacks, mixed with other vegetables, or even squeezed for oil which was used in making bread. Non-food uses included purple dye, medical uses, and using the dried stalk as a building material. The plant and the seeds were widely used in ceremonies.

In Peru, this flower was much revered by the Aztecs. In the Aztec temples of the Sun, the priestesses were crowned with sunflowers and carried them in their hands. The early Spanish conquerors found numerous pure gold representations of the sunflower in these temples.

Spanish explorers took the exotic sunflower plant to Europe in the 1500's, where it was widely used as an ornamental plant. By 1716, an English patent had been granted for squeezing oil from sunflower seeds but the sunflower was never really viewed as a food plant until it reached Russia. By 1830, sunflower oil was being commercially manufactured. The Russian Orthodox Church increased the popularity of sunflower oil when sunflower was left off the list of oil foods prohibited from being consumed during Lent.

By the early 19th Century, Russian farmers were growing over 2 million acres of sunflowers and government research programs were being implemented in Russia. By the late 19th Century, Russian sunflower seed had found its way into the United States, probably being reintroduced by Russian immigrants.

The first commercial use of the sunflower crop in the United States was as silage feed for poultry. In 1926, the Missouri Sunflower Grower's Association processed sunflower seed into oil.

Canada started the first official government sunflower breeding program in 1930, using basic plant breeding material from Mennonite (Russian immigrants) gardens. Sunflower acreage spread from Canada down into Minnesota and North Dakota, rapidly increasing in the United States in the late 1970's.

The top 3 sunflower producing states are North Dakota, South Dakota, and Kansas.