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We have all been bewitched by the young sunflower’s ability to turn its face a full 180 degrees to face the sun all day long. Researchers, painters, mathematicians … have been fascinated, humbled or seduced by the simple beauty of the sunflower. This model has been used to produce computer graphics representations of sunflowers. For the extreme math geeks amongst you, here is how Vogel expressed it in polar coordinates: where θ is the angle, r is the radius or distance from the center, and n is the index number of the floret and c is a constant scaling factor. Helmut Vogel in “A better way to construct the sunflower head” (1979) created a mathematical model to describe the intricate interconnecting spirals of a sunflower head. Is it any wonder the plant biologist John Burke at the University of Georgia says, “ it’s the largest and most successful flowering plant family on Earth” ? This pattern produces the most efficient packing of seeds within the flower head. On an average sized sunflower there would be 34 spirals in one direction and 55 in the other. The flower petals within the sunflower’s cluster are usually in a a spiral pattern where each floret is turned towards th e next by approximately the golden angle, 137.5°, producing a pattern of interconnecting spirals. A normal sunflower (A) and another mutation with ‘tubular’ florets (C) are shown for comparison. Researchers have identified the gene responsible for the ‘double-flowered’ (B) variations (black arrows in main picture) captured in Vincent van Gogh’s 1888 painting Sunflowers.
TURN YOUR FACE TOWARDS THE SUN ORIGIN LICENSE
This was not an artistic license taken by the painter but a faithful reproduction of a mutant variety of sunflower called the “teddy bear” (shown on left). Researchers these days have developed their own sunflower obsession – trying to solve the genetic origin of mutant “teddy bear” sunflowers depicted in Van Gogh’s ochre-splashed canvases. Van Gogh’s 1888 painting shows some sunflowers that lack the broad dark centre characteristic of sunflowers and instead show mainly golden petals. The outer, petal-bearing florets are the bright yellow, showy but quite sterile ray florets inside the circular head are the tube-like disc florets that mature into seeds. What is called the sun”flower” is really a flower head consisting of lots of florets crowded together. Van Gogh painted different varieties of sunflowers. The painting also reflects the diversity of life. Life and Death are bunched together in Van Gogh’s painting mimicking the spectrum of life of all living things and how one is inseparable from the other. The colours are vibrant – bright yellows for the flower in full bloom and arid browns to depict the wilting or dead flowers. In fact the sunflowers have almost become synonymous with Van Gogh’s name and his technique. Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers. He painted many sunflowers including the one shown below: Much as it did Vincent Van Gogh, the Dutch Impressionist painter, who obsessed about them until his death in 1890. The sunflower on its sturdy stem, sitting in a vase, brings a splash of sunshine to many a home around the world. In the 18th century the sunflower seed’s oil became a favoured cooking oil, especially in the Russian Orthodox Church, during the six weeks of Lent leading up to Easter. Nevertheless, the sunflower and its seeds reached European shores with the victorious Spanish galleons. It is even said the Spaniards, in their zeal to convert the Natives to Christianity, tried to suppress the cultivation of sunflowers as they disapproved of its association with native Indian worship and warfare. It traveled to Europe with the Spanish conquerors of South America in the early 16th century. The earliest known sunflower grown north of Mexico can be dated back to 2300 BC in Tennessee. Native American people – the Aztecs, the Otomi and the Incas would use sunflowers to represent their Sun deity.The first record we find of this flowering plant is dated 2600 BC in Mesoamerica, in present day Mexico. Turn your face to the sun and the shadows follow behind you … I am told is an old Maori proverb.