Sunflowers

Agricultural historians cannot agree on where the sunflower (Helianthus annuus) originated: Peru, Central America, and what is now the southwestern United States are all candidates. Everyone agrees, however, that the sunflower spread through the New World in pre-Columbian times, reaching what is now the eastern United States before the Spanish landed. It was one of two food plants (the other being its botanical cousin, the Jerusalem artichoke) domesticated by Native Americans in central North America between 3000 and 900 BCE.