A look inside the sunflower

By Aaron Horrell

This close-up look at a sunflower shows it to be more intricate than we might think.

The long, bright-yellow petals that surround the seed head as the sunflower blooms are obvious.

But did you know when the seeds are forming, each seed has its own tiny flower?

These tiny, five-pointed flowers are called disc flowers. Each one needs to be pollinated for that particular seed to form. When the seed matures, the disc flower dies and falls off, revealing the seed.

The beautiful long petals surrounding the sunflower head make up what is called the ray flower.