Wild Sunflower, Helianthus annuus

Foraging Texas Page on Sunflowers

Eat The Weeds Page on Sunflowers

USDA Plant Index Page on Sunflowers

Texas Beyond History Page on Sunflowers

Easiest time to identify: Late summer through early fall when flowers are in bloom.

Harvest/forage: Later summer though early fall.

The Sunflower is one of the most important plants historically that I have found on campus. It is of the few domesticated plants that thrive in the region. Sunflowers were one of the first domesticated plants in North America and have been a part of indigenous agricultural systems throughout space and time. It was a major plant in the Eastern Agricultural Complex being used for its oil and seed meat (Rivers of Change). The seeds can be “eaten raw, roasted, cooked, dried, and ground, and used as a source of oil. Flower buds were boiled.  The roasted seeds have been used as a coffee substitute” (Kindscher 1987).

The plant grows in disturbed soils, like camp sites or gardens or next to construction. At first I was surprised to find one but was later not surprised when I realized the building is next to major construction. This makes the plant excellent for following camps or establishing easily gathered fields. Many of the wild varieties have significantly smaller seeds than what people are used to buying in stores. Often purchased cracked seed meat from the store is larger than an entire seed from a wild variety. But due to the plants versatility there are many reasons to seek out and encourage sunflowers beside seed meat.The sunflower has many medicinal uses as well. 

Here is what the USDA plant index recorded as historical uses.

• The Cherokee used an infusion of sunflower leaves to treat kidneys.
• The Dakota used an infusion of sunflowers for chest pains and pulmonary troubles.
• The Gros Ventres, Rees, and Mandan used sunflowers ceremonially; oil from the seeds were used to lubricate or paint the face and body.
• The Gros Ventres, Mandan, Rees, and Hidatsa used sunflower seeds as a stimulant, taken on a war party or hunt to alleviate fatigue.
• The Hopi used the sunflower plant as a “spider medicine” and dermatological aid.
• The Navajo ate sunflower seeds to stimulate the appetite.
• The Navaho-Kayenta used the plant for the sun sand painting ceremony and as a disinfectant to prevent prenatal infections caused by the solar eclipse.
• The Navaho-Ramah used a salve of pulverized seed and root to prevent injury from a horse falling on a person and as a moxa of the pith to remove warts.
• The Paiute used a decoction of sunflower root to alleviate rheumatism.
• Pawnee women ate a dry seed concoction to protect suckling children.
• The Pima applied a poultice of warm ashes to the stomach for worms and used a decoction of leaves for high fevers and as a wash for horses’ sores caused by screwworms.
• The Thompson Indians used powdered sunflower leaves alone or in an ointment on sores and swellings.
• The Zuni used a poultice of sunflower root to treat snakebite, along with much ritual and ceremony.