A tall plant with tasty seeds
Sunflowers are big plants with thick, hairy stems and big, heart-shaped
leaves. Sunflower blossoms are often as big as dinner plates, and
sunflowers sometimes grow twice as tall as a tall man.
Sunflower seeds were an important food for many American Indian tribes.
The Indians dried the seeds and ground them into powder. They used the
powder to make bread and thicken soup. Sometimes they mixed powdered
sunflower seeds with fat to make a sort of pudding.
Sunflowers grow wild in prairies and meadows, but there are sunflower
farms in many parts of the world. Oil from sunflower seeds is used to
make margarine, cooking oils, paint, and soap. And many people enjoy
eating sunflower seeds.
