Nothing Common About Sunflowers

Meanwhile, back on Earth, I’m still trying to separate the wheat from the chaff, which, in this case, are the Jerusalem Artichokes from the rest of the sunflowers. They look much like all the others. They grow up to 10’ tall, the flowers are about 4” wide, each one at the end of its own stalk that branches off the stem of the plant, and, growing in a large colony, are beautiful.

Jerusalem Artichokes, like Common Sunflowers, were cultivated by the Native Americans, these for their edible tuber. Unlike potatoes (a tuber with a better press agent), these highly nutritious tubers contain no starch, but instead carbohydrates in a form that is metabolized into natural sugar. Indian guide Sacajawea prepared a meal of the tubers for Lewis and Clark in 1805.

Later cultivated in Italy, it was called girasole aricocco, which meant "sunflower artichoke". It is thought the mispronunciation of girasole lead to its current name, Jerusalem Artichoke.

In the meantime, I peruse several field guides, hoping to identify the species growing along my barn, looking at photos and reading descriptions until my head begins to throb. After discovering all these other species of sunflower, and pondering them much longer than necessary, I narrow it down to, yes, Woodland Sunflowers and Jerusalem Artichokes - girasole aricocco. At least I know they aren’t Common Sunflowers.

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