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While roses are sophisticated and a patch of wildflowers is all the rage, there’s nothing quite as glorious as a sunflower in full bloom.

The always delightful Miss Cellania has ten fun facts about sunflowers to help you appreciate them all the more and even put those flora giants to good use once they’ve passed their peak.

THEY’RE NATIVE TO THE AMERICAS.

Like potatoes, tomatoes, and corn, the cheerful plants didn’t originate in Europe. They were cultivated in North America as far back as 3000 BCE, when they were developed for food, medicine, dye, and oil. Then, they were exported to the rest of the world by Spanish conquistadors around 1500.

THEY WERE BROUGHT TO RUSSIA BY ROYALTY.

Tsar Peter the Great was so fascinated by the sunny flowers he saw in the Netherlands that he took some back to Russia. They became popular when people discovered that sunflower seed oil was not banned during Lent, unlike the other oils the Russian Orthodox Church banned its patrons from consuming. By the 19th century, the country was planting two million acres of sunflowers every year.

Full story at Mental_Floss via Miss Cellania.

Garden stars.

Graphics credit: Canva