Plant · P-714

Sunflower Oilseed

Helianthus annuus

Oilseed Sunflower is the field-crop form of the common sunflower, bred for smaller, uniform heads packed with oil-rich seed rather than one giant flower head. The seed presses into cooking oil and the leftover meal is the world's fourth-biggest oilseed meal, feeding poultry, rabbits and fish as readily as cattle, while the whole plant can be cut green and ensiled as forage. Its taproot runs about ten feet down, pulling water from deeper than a maize crop can reach and making it one of the most drought-tolerant field crops grown. The one surprise: it is allelopathic, suppressing whatever grows beside it or follows it in the same ground, so it needs a season of separation from a crop you actually want to succeed.