sunflower chronicle

Around February, a tiny bud peeked out from the ground. It’s probably just another invasive weed I thought..It started to grow next to the tree that got uprooted and fell during the windstorm in January that also fueled the LA fires. I decided to keep a record of its growth. It’s been fascinating observing the life cycle!

2/20 through 3/14

for a while the leaves develop in pairs opposite each other

3/29 through 5/4

From day1 the leaves were eaten up and had lots of holes. But it kept growing

mid May

rapid growth seen during the month of May

the iSeek app says its indeed a sunflower!

5/24 through 5/31

during the last week of May, the buds started to show up

6/5 through 6/8

the bud started to peel open and also started to turn towards the sun

6/9, 6/10

6/11

The sunflower is a compound head, a combo of ray flowers ( the yellow petals ) and disc flowers which are composed of bunch of small flowers.

6/12

The disc flowers are arranged in concentric rings known as the Fibonacci Sequence!

6/13, 6/14

6/16

they start blooming from outer ring towards the center

6/17

… until the entire disc blooms and bulges out like a half sphere. It looks heavy. you can also see that the seeds are starting to form

6/22

we started to see some seeds along the edges

6/26

the ring petals have died and fallen off and you can see more seeds forming.

6/29

someone’s been munching on the seeds.. I set up a time-lapse camera and..

found the squirrel eating at an enormous pace..

now, the sunflower still stands in a very sorry looking state..

I don’t know what will happen to it.. are we suppose to chop it down? Lots of seed shells on the ground. Will any of them grow? We shall see!