What do sunflowers symbolize and represent?
The sunflower is a large annual plant of the genus Helianthus in the Asteraceae family that can grow up to 3 m tall. Also known as the sun-facing flower, sun-gazing lotus, and sun flower, it gets its name because its flower head turns with the sun. It is native to South America and is the national flower of Russia, Ukraine, Portugal, Peru, and Bolivia. Now let us take a look at what sunflowers represent!
What do sunflowers represent?
Courageously pursuing the happiness you want. The flower language of the sunflower is faith, radiance, pride, loyalty, and adoration, and its symbolism is silent love, representing the courage to pursue the happiness you want. Although the sunflower's flower posture is not as romantic as the rose, nor as pure as the lily, it is sunny and bright, loves openly and honestly, loves without abandoning, and has its own unique charm. Moreover, what it blooms is not only love, but also a passion for dreams and for life.
Why do sunflowers face the sun?
Under sunlight, the content of auxin in the sunflower increases on the side away from the light, stimulating the cells on the shaded side to elongate and turn toward the sun. After the sun sets, the auxin is redistributed, causing the sunflower to turn back toward the east. At the same time, auxin is distributed on the shaded side of the sunflower's receptacle, so the stem on the shaded side grows faster, and the stem bends toward the light source. Moreover, the sunflower facing the sun is also closely related to the effect of gravity.
What legends are there about sunflowers?
1. Legend one: Clytie was an ocean goddess and once the lover of the sun god Helios, but later Helios fell in love with the Persian princess Leucothoe. Furious, Clytie reported the relationship between Leucothoe and Helios to the Persian king Orchamus. Orchamus ordered his unchaste daughter to be buried alive. When Helios learned of this, he completely broke off contact with Clytie. The infatuated Clytie went several days without food or water, gazing at Helios driving his sun chariot as it rose in the east and set in the west, growing more haggard by the day, and ultimately transformed into a sun-facing flower (sunflower).
2. Legend two: Clytie was a water nymph. One day in the woods she met the sun god Apollo while he was hunting, and she was deeply fascinated by this handsome god and fell madly in love with him. But Apollo did not even glance at her and just left. Clytie eagerly hoped that one day Apollo would speak to her, but she never met him again. So she could only gaze at the sky every day, watching Apollo drive his golden, splendid sun chariot across the sky. She fixed her eyes on Apollo's course until he descended the mountain. Day after day, she just sat there blankly, her hair disheveled and her face haggard. At sunrise, she would look toward the sun. Later, the gods took pity on her and turned her into a large golden-yellow sunflower. Her face became the flower disc, forever facing the sun, following him every day -- Apollo -- and telling him of her eternal, unchanging love and adoration. Therefore, the flower language of the sunflower is -- silent love.
3. Legend three: In ancient times there was a farmer's daughter named Minggu. She was simple and honest and beautiful, but her stepmother, the “female tyrant”, regarded her as a thorn in her side and subjected her to all kinds of humiliation and abuse. Once, over a trivial matter, she talked back to her stepmother once, which enraged the stepmother, who used a leather whip to beat her, but accidentally struck her own biological daughter, who had come to intervene. The stepmother was both angry and hateful, and at night, while Minggu was sound asleep, she gouged out her eyes. Minggu could not bear the pain, broke down the door and fled, and died not long after. After her death, a bright yellow flower bloomed on her grave, facing the sunlight all day long. It was the sunflower. It expresses Minggu's yearning for light and hatred of darkness. This legend inspires people to hate violence and darkness and to pursue light. Thus the sunflower has propagated to this day.