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Summer Solstice and Sunflower Day
"True friends are like bright sunflowers that never fade away, even over distance and time."
~ Marie Williams Johnstone
Happy Summer Solstice, tartan lovers! Sunflowers, with their towering stalks and bright, burnished and golden petals, are sun-seeking marvels. Scientifically known as Helianthus annuus, these flowers can grow up to twelve feet tall, creating a stunning sea of yellow and sunset colours yellow that mimics the sun's own radiant glow. Rich in history and symbolism, sunflowers represent adoration, loyalty, and longevity. They have been cultivated for thousands of years, originating from the Americas, where indigenous peoples utilized them for food, medicine, and dyes. An interesting fact about sunflowers is that they exhibit a behavior called "heliotropism" when they are young. This means that the sunflower buds and young flowers will track the movement of the sun across the sky during the day, facing east in the morning and west by the evening. This movement helps maximize their photosynthesis. Once the flowers mature, they generally face east permanently to attract more pollinators, as the east-facing orientation helps them warm up more quickly in the morning sun. May your longest day be a sunny one. ☀️💛 🤎 🧡 🖤 🏵️ 🏵️ 🏵️
Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) are one of several plant species that make optimum use of light by turning to face the sun, known as heliotropism or phototropism.
A flexible segment of the stem just below the flower responds to pressure within the motor cells, causing the sunflower to turn toward light. The plant tracks light to enhance photosynthesis, the process of creating food from light. Heliotropism also increases the flower temperature, which attracts bees and other pollinators. The rise in temperature increases the rate of pollen germination. Mature sunflowers with stiffer stems become stationary, facing the rising eastern sun.
Heirloom varieties of sunflower may exhibit more pronounced sun-tracking characteristics than newer, hybrid versions.
Mathematical biologists love sunflowers. The giant flowers exhibit demonstrations of a hidden mathematical rule shaping the patterns of life: the Fibonacci sequence, a set in which each number is the sum of the previous two (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, ...), found in everything from pineapples to pine cones. In sunflowers, the sequence is illustrated in the number of different seed spirals on the sunflower's face. Counting the clockwise and counterclockwise spirals that reach the outer edge usually results in a pair of numbers from the sequences: 34 and 55, or 55 and 89, or with very large sunflowers, 89 and 144.
A study published in 2016 in Royal Society Open Science reported that nearly one in five of the flowers had either non-Fibonacci spiraling patterns or patterns more complicated than has ever been reported, including near-Fibonacci sequences and other mathematical patterns that compete and clash across the flower's face.
This tartan designed by Carol A.L. Martin picks up the deeper shades seen in the seedhead of the sunflower.
For more illustrations of the golden ratio and Fibonacci sequence in nature, click the sunflower!