Anomaly Shmanomaly - The Continuing Sunflower Saga

So it turns out that the multi-bloom sunflower stalk that is growing in front of my house is not an anomaly. It is simply the wild version of the domestic Sunflower. When I was researching the various Sunflower plants on Google, I had a brain fart. Instead of searching for multi-“bloom” Sunflowers, I searched for multi-“bulb” Sunflowers. Doing that obviously resulted in no results.

After making the correct search, I came up with dozens of websites containing information about multi-bloom sunflowers. On www.sunflowernsa.com they explain the multi-bloom sunflowers in their FAQ section:

“The cultivated sunflower has only one flower or head. But the wild cousins found growing in ditches and other areas throughout much of North America have multiple flowers and heads. Multiples of 20 and more heads are common. The 'wilds' are the genetic basis of today's domesticated sunflower.”

Well there you have it. The mystery is solved. Since I was so interested in the Sunflowers growing in my yard, I did a little foraging around to see what else was growing.


Heather was growing some peppers in a little pot and I took a picture of the plant. You can see two tiny peppers just starting to grow.

Believe this or not, this is a very tiny strawberry growing right next to my walkway to the front door. Apparently somebody was eating a strawberry and dropped a seed or two. Cute, isn’t it?

At another corner of my property, these pretty yellow flowers are flourishing. They are flourishing simply because it’s been dry and I haven’t mowed the lawn in a while. We did not plant these flowers; however, Heather does have a bird feeder so it is possible that birds dropped some seeds and this is how they started. I don’t know what kind of flowers they are but I figured I would get a picture of them before I mow this weekend. Hey, at least the peppers and Sunflowers are safe…

Note: A special thanks to Linda Fanelli, for letting me borrow her really nice digital camera. I only have a web cam and it is difficult to take pictures anywhere except directly in front of the pc. (The picture of the peanut butter dream bar was taken with my web cam.)

A Sunflower Anomaly

My daughter, Heather, planted a half dozen sunflowers in front of the steps that lead to the front door of our house. They've just started to bloom and are a beautiful and yet imposing greeting as you walk towards my doorway. I don't know much about sunflowers, in fact, I don't know much about anything that is green and sprouts from the ground. I don't even water the lawn for fear it might grow. I even run around the yard yelling, "Die!" at the top of my lungs. After all, a growing lawn needs mowing and who has time for that?

But seriously, I am enjoying the sunflowers. And like everything else around here and in my life, one of them is a bit odd. As far as my understanding about sunflowers goes, they are a rather tall, single green-stalked plant with a beautiful golden flower on top. There are some variations of colors and sizes but the key was a single stalk with a single flower. So why does one of the sunflowers have around a dozen buds on it?

I checked with my official source, Wikipedia, and nowhere does it mention that sunflowers have multiple blooms. I googled sunflowers and checked verious websites, but to no avail. It seems that no one has ever seen or taken a picture of a multiple bloom sunflower. I was talking with Betty tonight and I told her about the unusual flower. As far as she knows, she's never heard of a sunflower with more than one bloom. I told her that I decided that it must be an anomaly.

That got a big chuckle out of Betty. "Throwing big words at me, are you?" she asked quite amused with herself. Even though anomaly is not a word I use often, I didn't think it was THAT big of a word. But before I could defend myself or tell her I had to look it up in the dictionary to make sure I was using and spelling it correctly, Betty continued, "But don't you see that anomaly is the perfect word here. It accurately describes your flower!" I sighed and just said, "Yea, it's unusual."

If anyone out there knows anything about sunflowers, please clue me in as to whether or not this mutliple-budded sunflower is an anomaly or simply just unusual. Or maybe it's a mutation, like a two-headed snake or someone with an extra toe. But isn't a mutation an anomaly? Does being a mutation or an anomaly automatically mean it's unusual? I just don't know. Where's Betty when you need her?