Most of us call them sunflowers with an "s." But according to Mary Lou, whose work in sunflower breeding took her to many parts of the world for 21 years, sunflower never turns into sunflowers...ever! So, if you have one sunflower or twenty, you still have sunflower. Period. (Got it?)

Mary Lou shares these interesting facts about sunflowers:

Sunflower is a crop/plant that is actually native to the U.S.That means it started in the United States first, before anywhere else in the whole, wide world.

• There are actually many different sunflower species (upwards to probably 80 different species) in the U.S. They grow everywhere from the state of Washington to the state of Florida. (Some of them don't look much like the "happy" sunflowers we commonly think of when we hear the word sunflower. That's because they're "multi-headed," meaning they have more than one "face." They like to grow in ditchbanks, and are usually considered just a stubborn weed.
• Sunflower grown as crops (not weeds) fall into two main categories: the kind with very large seeds (most commonly black and white striped) called confectionary sunflower and the kind called oilseed sunflower (or oiles), sporting all-black seeds.
• The 'face' of a normal sunflower plant contains up to 3,000 individual flowers. A seed develops from each flower, while the bigger flower "face" blooms in rings - about an inch a day. It usually takes a full week for a sunflower to bloom.

Question: Do sunflower bloom by turning their face toward the sun?

Answer: False!

Most people think a sunflower "follows the sun," but that actually happens when sunflower are very young plants, long before they are ready to bloom. A fieldful of sunflower looks beautiful first thing in the morning, as they point their faces toward the east. By noon they're pointing straight up, and by evening, to the west. If you check back the next morning, they'll be facing east again.