Common Sunflower
The common sunflower is a species of large annual forb of the genus Helianthus.
It is commonly grown as a crop for its edible oily seeds. Apart from cooking oil production, it is also used as livestock forage, as bird food, in some industrial applications, and as an ornamental in domestic gardens.
The plant was first domesticated in the Americas. Sunflower seeds were brought to Europe from the Americas in the 16th century, where, along with sunflower oil, they became a widespread cooking ingredient.
The wild sunflower is a widely branched annual plant with many flower heads. The domestic sunflower, however, often possesses only a single large inflorescence (flower head) atop an unbranched stem.