Sunflower Domestication

Wild sunflowers bloom in Nuevo Leon in the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains. Researchers now believe sunflowers were domesticated twice, once in the eastern part of the Mississippi Valley about 3,200 years ago, and independently in Mexico about 4,600 years ago. The research by David Lentz of the University of Cincinnati was recently presented in a press release highlighting the study’s publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Credit: Credit: David Lentz, University of Cincinnati