Sunflower Livingston Mammoth Russian

The annual sunflower, Helianthus annuus, is a North American species cultivated and harvested for food by Native Americans for centuries. The Spanish introduced it to Europe by the 1500s, where it became widespread as an oil crop and an ornamental. During the 18th century Russian farmers were manufacturing sunflower oil on a commercial scale and a cultivated variety returned to America by the 1880s with the introduction of Mammoth Russian Sunflower.