Sunflower

Helianthus annuus

Asteraceae

A tall disk for seed, oil, and bees — and a living stake that shades a cucumber in July.

Garden annual. Bird seed and oil types are food. Wild lookalikes in the same genus are not this plate.

Parts used: Seed · Petal · Young head
Traditional notes: Roasted seed · Cold-pressed oil · Edible petal · Pollinator row
Grow · USDA 6b: Tender annual. Frost ends it. Direct-sow after frost, an inch deep. Mammoth for seed, branching types for cut flowers. In work: May · Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep
Harvest: Heads when the back turns yellow-brown and the bracts droop. Petals anytime.

A north-side row shades cucumber without stealing its morning.
Leave one head for the goldfinches.
Do not plant in last year’s potato ground if wilt lives in your county.

Safety

Seed hulls are a choking hazard for small children

Companions

Plant with Anise hyssop, Bee balm, Borage, Calendula, Clove pink, Corn.

Keep apart from Potato.

Lore

The Hopi and other Pueblo peoples bred the plant long before Russian millers made it an oil crop. Van Gogh’s vases are the European afterimage. The disk is a Fibonacci classroom: spirals you can count with a child.

The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.