Sunflower
In the flower dictionaries the sunflower meant "false riches", from the story that Spanish conquerors took fields of sunflowers in Peru for gold. American and later English books preferred adoration: Sarah Josepha Hale's dwarf sunflower says "your devout adorer".
Meaning
Charlotte de La Tour's chapter heads the sunflower Fausses richesses. The flower came from Peru, she writes, where it was honoured as an image of the sun; the virgins of the Sun wore golden crowns in its shape, and the Spaniards were astonished to find whole fields of maize and sunflowers imitated in gold. The English version of her book and Henrietta Dumont's Floral Offering (Philadelphia, 1851) keep "false riches"; Dumont spells out the lesson, that gold, however plentiful, cannot make anyone truly rich. Sarah Josepha Hale's Flora's Interpreter (Boston, 1832) turns the flower round. Her dwarf sunflower, with flowers that "turn with the sun", says "your devout adorer". Kate Greenaway's Language of Flowers (1884) gives the dwarf sunflower "adoration" and the tall one "haughtiness". The introduction to the English version of La Tour offers yet another reading, telling readers that in the East sunflowers stand for constancy. The dictionaries are a finished fashion, not a living tradition.
Origin and history
The Peruvian story was already doubted in the nineteenth century. Richard Folkard's Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics (1884) repeats it, but also points out that the sunflower (Helianthus) cannot be the flower of the Greek story of Clytie, who turned to watch the sun she loved: it is not a European plant, and it first came to Europe from North America. The US Forest Service now counts 52 species of sunflower, all native to North America and Mexico, and says the common sunflower is probably native to the central and southern United States and Mexico.
Does it follow the sun?
The books disagreed about the flower's habit as well as its meaning. Hale says the flowers turn with the sun. Dumont, twenty years later, says the English poets took up the idea but that "it is not a fact". Folkard quotes the herbalist John Gerard, writing in 1597, who had tried to see it turn and never could. Research at the University of California, Davis, published in 2016, settled it both ways: growing sunflowers face east at dawn, swing west during the day and turn back east at night, but once the flower opens the plant stops moving and stays facing east.
See also
Red rose, White rose, Yellow rose, Pink rose, Lily, Tulip.
Sources
- Le Langage des fleurs (Charlotte de La Tour, 13th edition), Charlotte de La Tour, Le Langage des fleurs, treizième édition augmentée (Paris: Garnier frères, [1856]); first published 1819, Cornell University Library, via the Internet Archive, Soleil ou Tournesol
- The Language of Flowers: The Floral Offering, by Henrietta Dumont, 1851, H. C. Peck & Theo. Bliss, Philadelphia (Project Gutenberg edition), Sunflower chapter
- Flora's Interpreter (Sarah Josepha Hale, 1832), Sarah Josepha Hale, Flora's Interpreter, or the American Book of Flowers and Sentiments (Boston: Marsh, Capen and Lyon, 1832), Boston Public Library, via the Internet Archive, Sun-Flower, Dwarf
- Language of Flowers, illustrated by Kate Greenaway, 1884, George Routledge and Sons (Project Gutenberg edition), Sunflower
- Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics (Richard Folkard, 1884), Richard Folkard, Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics (London: Sampson Low, 1884), Project Gutenberg, Sunflower
- Common Sunflower (US Forest Service), USDA Forest Service
- Sunflowers Move by the Clock (UC Davis), University of California, Davis
- The Language of Flowers, with Illustrative Poetry, by Frederic Shoberl, seventh edition, 1840, Saunders & Otley, London (Internet Archive, Cornell University Library copy), Sunflower; Introduction
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Last reviewed September 29, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research