COMMON SUNFLOWER

Latin: Helianthus annuus

Latvian: saulespuķe jeb vasaras saulgrieze

Sunflower is an annual herbaceous plant. The growth is large, 100 to 300 cm high.

An adventive plant, a garden escapee, rarely found in the wild.

Stem erect, usually simple, with erect, rough hairs. Leaves alternate or opposite,

simple, entire, triangular or elliptic, 10-25 cm long, 7-10 cm wide, 3-veined and on

both sides with short, appressed hairs, margin coarsely doubly serrate, base

cordate, tip acuminate; lower leaves much smaller than upper ones, leaf stalk long.

Blooms from July to September. Flower baskets bent, 10-30 cm wide, one at the top

of the stem. The leaves are ovate, pointed, ovate in several rows, with hairs. The

bed of the kurvish is flat. There are no hairs, instead 2 patches that soon fall off. At

the outer edge of the peduncle, yellow sterile tongue flowers, 6-10 cm long, up to 2

cm wide, in the middle of the peduncle, bisexual tubular flowers with a brownish or

pinkish-brown crown. Fruit - a gray-black faceted seed. Flower baskets are

characterized by heliotropism - they rotate with the course of the sun, ie in the

direction of the brightest light.

Cultivated as an oil plant, food plant and ornamental plant. The fruits contain 20-39%

oil. The trunks contain up to 35% potassium oxide, they are used for potash

extraction.

APPLICATION

Solstice oil is used in medicine as a choleretic, for treating inflammation of the upper

respiratory tract, against atherosclerosis, as a laxative, as a basis for various

ointments.

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