"Sunflowers (Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers)'' by Vincent van Gogh (1888) with double-flowered sunflower heads, the result of a genetic mutation.
Sunflower florets are laid out in a very specific geometry.
An orange sunflower mutant, a variety called the "Teddy Bear," has all rows of florets turned into petals.
This variety of sunflower has more florets that make seeds and fewer that make petals.
The most common wild sunflower variety is shown in box A, and its florets are shown in B. Box C shows a double-flowered mutant variety, with its florets shown in D. Box E shows the tubular variety, with its florets shown in F. The arrows in box G indicate the double-flowered mutants depicted in van Gogh's Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers.
A field of normal, non-mutated, sunflowers.
Other varities of sunflower have darker hues.
When not being attacked by small children, immature sunflowers are able to orient themselves toward sunlight.
A wild bee (the bumble bee Bombus vosnesenskii) and a honey bee forage together on a sunflower. Honey bees that interact with wild, native bees are up to five times more efficient in pollinating sunflowers.
