Is a sunflower a weed?

Question

My boyfriend claims they are, I disagree.....please tell me it isn't so!

Answer 1

It isn't so!

Answer 2

NO...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.

Answer 3

No It's A Yellow Flower I Love Sunflowers If It's A Weed Why Would They Sell Them?

Answer 4

Any plant that is not wanted is considered a weed. So it's all in the eye of the beholder as they say or dependant upon the situation. For instance, most adults in the United States consider dandelions a weed even though kids love to pick them. However, dandelions can also be considered a garden vegetable or type of salad vegetable/lettuce. Some people take dandelions and place a bucket over them or something to shade them, then after the leaves have turned pale, they use them in a garden salad.

Corn for instance is also considered a crop plant and is farmed heavily in the midwest, but when corn grows up in a soybean patch it is considered a weed by many farmers.

To you it's a not a weed and to him it is a weed. You both are right, although the majority of people don't consider it a weed.

Answer 5

In an agricultural calss in college I learned that a week, is any plant that is growing in a undesirable location. Therefore, a corn plant growing in a rose garden is a weed. Grass growing in a flower bed is a weed. Sunflowers are actually a common agricultural crop since sunflower seed and the oil from the seed are both marketable products. But if a sunflower is growing in a cornfield, then it is a weed.

Answer 6

No the sunflower is not a weed but an actual crop plant as described by the University of Minnesota:

Sunflower is an annual, erect, broadleaf plant with a strong taproot and prolific lateral spread of surface roots. Stems are usually round early in the season, angular and woody later in the season, and normally unbranched.

Sunflower leaves are phototropic and will follow the sun's rays with a lag of 120 behind the sun's azimuth. This property has been shown to increase light interception and possibly photosynthesis.

The sunflower head is not a single flower (as the name implies) but is made up of 1,000 to 2,000 individual flowers joined at a common receptacle. The flowers around the circumference are ligulate ray flowers without stamens or pistils; the remaining flowers are perfect flowers (with stamens and pistils). Anthesis (pollen shedding) begins at the periphery and proceeds to the center of the head. Since many sunflower varieties have a degree of self-incompatibility, pollen movement between plants by insects is important, and bee colonies have generally increased yields.

Answer 7

Any unwanted plant can be considered a weed, particularly if it is vigorously self-propagating. If your boyfriend doesn't like sunflowers, they're a weed to him. But the vast majority of folks would disagree. Some people even call marijuana a weed, and it is the very height of Nature's Own Goodness.

You're better off without him. Cut the boy loose.

Answer 8

No they are not a weed. Weeds are a perennial and Sunflowers grow directly from seed. If you get a recurring crop of sunfloers, it is usually because the birds or squirrels left the seeds behind the previous year.

Here's a little fact, Sunflowers are one of the few plants that every part can be used. The stalks can actually be dried and used as kindling, as well as the heads.

Answer 9

a plant being a weed is a subjective term. A sunflower growing in a field of corn would be considered a weed, but a stalk of corn in a field of sunflowers would be a weed. I am sure there is an official definition of what a weed is but it is subjective. Are poppies weeds, or cannabis a weed if you use them as cash crops and want them to grow. I guess any plant that you don't want or like could be considered a weed.

Answer 10

It's a flower and a crop for sunflower oil - so no not a weed. Weeds are listed in an Act of Parliament. Weeds spread and are a nuisance, you have a legal obligation to keep them under control. Sunflowers grow from seed - so easy to control.

Answer 11

In certain areas, certain varieties are considered as weeds. there are 56 varieites that live freely within the USA. The Sunflower is in the family Asteraceae or Compositaceae and has many varations.

The seed companies sell a lot of sunflower seeds each growing season.. We try to plant at least five or more colors each season.