PLANTS (Flowers)

SUNFLOWER
Common Name: Sunflower

Scientific Name: Helianthus annuus

Awards: State Flower of Kansas – 1903 and Kansas Wildflower of the Year – 2000

In September the fields and roadsides of the Great

Plains erupt in a blaze of yellow as the sunflowers and
goldenrods (also members of the sunflower family)
make their presence known to the local pollinating
insects. While many sunflower species may begin
blooming in July, they are not as noticeable then as later
on when they have grown up and over the surrounding
vegetation. There are eleven species of sunflower
recorded from Kansas. Most of them are perennials.
Only the common sunflower and H. petiolaris, the Prairie
Sunflower, are annuals. Identification of sunflowers can
be very complicated because they frequently hybridize
and even within species there is a high degree of
variability. With a little practice, however, the most common species can be readily
recognized.

The Common Sunflower has a long history of association with people. Nearly 3,000
years ago it was domesticated for food production by the Native Americans. The
seeds of the wild type of sunflower are only about 5 mm. long. It was only through
careful selection for the largest size seeds over hundreds of years that the
cultivated sunflower was produced. Lewis and Clark made mention in their journals
of its usage by the plains Indians. It was brought back to the Old World by the early
European explorers and widely cultivated there also. Today it is a common
alternative crop in the Great Plains and elsewhere for food and oil production.
Next time you munch down on some sunflower seeds, thank the many generations
of Native Americans whose careful husbandry gave us this valuable food item.

The wild cousins of those grown on the farm are still common, however, in fields,
roadsides and disturbed ground throughout the Great Plains. The Common
Sunflower is a typical member of the Asteraceae, one of the largest and most
successful families of plants. Within the structure we think of as the "flower", it
actually has two different types of flowers - ray and disk flowers.

The ray flowers have the big, straplike structures that we see around the edge of
the "flower" while the disk flowers occupy the middle of it. Within the Asteraceae,
many confusing combinations of the two are possible along with the total absence
of one or the other in some species! Individual ray or disk flowers may be male,
female or both and either fertile or infertile (do or don't produce seeds). In
sunflowers, the ray flowers are usually female and infertile. The disk flowers are
both male and female and are fertile.
 PLANTS (Flowers)

BUSH MORNING-GLORY
Common Name: Bush Morning-glory

Scientific Name: Ipomoea leptophylla

A person travelling through the high plains in

summer might notice a large spreading
wildflower up to four feet high - almost a shrub
- with huge pink/purple flowers on it growing on
a roadside embankment. The flowers are
funnel-shaped and up to 3 1/2 inches long. The
leaves are quite skinny (length 2 - 8.5 cm,
width 1 - 8 mm). This is the Bush Morning-
glory.

It may be found west of the 97th meridian from

the Black Hills of South Dakota to the foothills
of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado to the Texas panhandle. It is the only member
of its genus on the Great Plains that grows erect and bushy rather than by twining
on its surroundings. Bush Morning-glory is a member of the same family of plants
that includes the Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas), the garden varieties of Morning-
glory and Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis). The latter is one of our most pernicious
weeds and should not be confused with Bush Morning-glory. The flowers of
Bindweed are white and only about an inch across, its leaves are shaped like an
arrowhead and it twines instead of standing erect.

Aside from its flowers, the most startling thing about Bush Morning-glory is what is
beneath the ground. It draws its nickname of "Man Root" from the huge taproot it
develops, which is nearly the size of a person. Immediately below the ground
surface and then for another foot or so, it will have a root about 1/2 inch in
diameter. Below that, it will abruptly swell into a huge turnip-shaped taproot as
much as 2 feet thick and 5-6 feet long! Lateral roots off this may extend out
another 25 feet! Obviously, this species expects to see hard times and prepares
accordingly.

The root was used as a food source by Native Americans during winter. It needs to
be boiled or baked because it is bitter when raw. Younger specimens were
preferred to the gigantic older ones described above, both for reasons of taste and
ease of digging them up!