sunflower
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Not just a pretty face, the sunflower provides edible seeds from which cooking oil and margarine are produced.
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A field of sunflowers in Tuscany, Italy. The sunflower is raised commercially for its oil, but is also a fascinating garden plant. The large flower head, holding the oil-bearing seeds, can measure up to 30 cm/12 in across, and turns throughout the day in order to face toward the sun.
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A field of sunflowers in the province of Córdoba, Andalusia, in Spain.
Tall, thick-stemmed plant with a large, single, yellow-petalled flower, belonging to the daisy family. The common or giant sunflower (H. annuus), probably native to Mexico, can grow up to 4.5 m/15 ft high. It is commercially cultivated in central Europe, the USA, Russia, Ukraine, and Australia for the oil-bearing seeds that ripen in the central disc of the flower head; sunflower oil is widely used as a cooking oil and in margarine. (Genus Helianthus, family Compositae.)
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