Tuesday, March 1, 2011

SUNFLOWERS

Did you know . . .

The florets within the sunflower's cluster are arranged in a spiral pattern. Typically each floret is oriented toward the next by approximately the golden angle, 137.5°, producing a pattern of interconnecting spirals where the number of left spirals and the number of right spirals are successive Fibonacci numbers. Typically, there are 34 spirals in one direction and 55 in the other.

Despite the common belief, mature sunflowers do not track the sun. The mature flower heads typically face east; only young sunflowers exhibit heliotropism (sun turning).

Sunflowers can be used to extract toxic ingredients from soil, such as lead, arsenic and uranium. They were used to remove cesium-137 and strontium-90 from a nearby pond after the Chernobyl disaster.

International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day is May 1st.  It is a day when guerrilla gardeners around the world plant sunflowers in their neighborhood, typically in neglected public places such as tree pits, shabby flower beds and bare roadside areas.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia