We love sunflowers!
Stroll in silence among these colorful flowers that can measure three meters high, take fun photos and end up having toast with extra virgin olive oil for breakfast. Iberian ham from Los Pedroches and a natural orange juice in one of the sales near the crops has become quite an experience.
Three hours that start with the fresh one, at 8 in the morning, in which the mobile cameras end up fuming.
It doesn't matter if you're a child or if you already look older for selfies... It does not matter if you are classified as local tourism or as a foreigner; that you come as a couple or in a group of friends... You don't need to be a blogger or instagramer, because no one, without exception, can resist taking the photon among sunflowers.
But if there is an audience that enjoys and connects with the energy of the sunflower, it is…. tachan! the Japanese public! In addition, they are pleasantly surprised when they try the seeds and learn to eat them (it couldn't be more adorable).
Field of sunflowers in the province of Córdoba
Isa Calvache, from Caracol Tours , after three years living in the empire of the Rising Sun, when he returned to his native Córdoba, it was clear to him: “During my stay there I made hundreds of visits to flowery gardens and parks with friends and co-workers and I was able to verify the love that the Japanese feel for flowers and how they are attentive to the flowering of each of the species at different times of the year, "he explains to Traveler.es
"The sunflower was the first flower chosen for my floral tours –in which I also include the courtyards of Cordoba– because there in Japan there are very few and here many, and because they also perform a regenerative function of the soil and the air that made them desirable flowers in the wake of the Fukushima disaster”, he continues.
But you don't have to be Japanese to feel inundated with that 'don't know' that these plants transmit. A positive energy and a brutal vitalism catches you when you face that yellow blanket of flowers of such caliber that they generate a golden reflection that not even the best of filters…
Yellow is the color of joy, of light, the color of being and in each culture it has had a meaning. Vincent Van Gogh was obsessed with painting them.
It has been shown "that the color yellow activates the mind and speeds up memory, that's why post-it notes are yellow!" comments the guide Isa Calvache, who these days is trying to round off the route and improve it with non-polluting vehicles and other small details. "I lack a bit of institutional support," he tells us. I leave it there.
Impossible to resist posing!
THE PERFECT SPIRAL AND OTHER CURIOSITIES
The sunflower is not only a seductive plant but also most interesting, even It still has certain enigmas that continue to be deciphered little by little. We know that They follow the sun during the day from east to west. is the call heliotropism , whose purpose is to grow more and also be warmer and more appetizing for bees and bumblebees, their pollinators.
But also, according to a recent study by the University of California , it has been found that sunflowers have an internal circadian clock (a biological clock in a plant!) that acts on growth hormones to track the sun.
"During the day, the shaded side of the stem grows more than the lighted side , causing it to bend toward the sun," says Stacey Harmer, one of the study's authors.
At night, the flowers turn in the opposite direction and at dawn they are ready to follow the sun again. The researchers believe that this circadian clock is also involved in the growth of the west side of the plant, causing it to level off and get back on track. “a backward-forward flexion that combines with their signaling mechanism of the photoreceptors they possess”, discussed in this same study.
Yellow is the color of joy!
But there is still more, if you look closely at a sunflower flower the arrangement of its seeds is pure mathematics. It is known as the Fermat's spiral , whereby the plant reduces shadows and sun blocking between seeds. The pipes form an angle of 137 degrees inside , a perfect angle to make the most of the light.
For this reason, researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have used the plant to create in their image and likeness solar plants formed by hundreds of mirrors that do not shade each other, getting the maximum available solar energy.
And this mathematical organization not only occurs with their pipes, but also with the plants themselves. That is in a field of sunflowers where they are all very close together, they do not compete with each other for sunlight, but organize themselves, they twist their stems and dodge the neighbor's shadow, all to the beat, thanks to the fact that they are able to detect the quality of the light.
The Ruta sel Sol will make you fall in love
A CROP THAT IS LOSING
During the Sun Route All these details are counted. And many more. The uses of the plant and other curiosities are in charge Antonio Rojas, the owner of one of the sunflower farms in Santa Cruz, Córdoba, where the route passes Although he studied Arts and Crafts, Antonio ended up, due to the course of life, working in the fields and dealing with different crops.
“One day I came to the field and I found a piece of paper on the gate that said: 'Hello, I'm Isabel Calvache and this is my phone number. I wanted to talk to you about a tourist route.'” When I called her, she explained to me what it was for and that's how we started with tourist visits”, tells us this farmer for whom the countryside and tourism are naturally closer.
"This is a crop that is present in almost all of Spain, but it is being lost. It is not profitable due to competition from palm cultivation, which is the least ecological and sustainable plant in the world, destroying forests every year. But there is more demand for palm oil from industry, for the lower price compared to sunflower oil, ”he says.
"It's a shame because in addition to the fact that the plant is very pretty, It is part of the typical landscape of the Andalusian countryside. And when flowering arrives, it's nice to see the countryside”, he comments as he walks through the sunflower plantation, which at this hour is already beginning to be populated with bees.
The fields of Córdoba are filled with light and color
“In fact, the sunflower is very curious. The petals are not the flowers. The flowers are inside the ear, which has many. These little flowers are what the bees drink. The others, the yellow petals serve the plant to attract the attention of bees and bumblebees so that they go and pollinate them”, says Antonio, accustomed to giving all kinds of details about the plant and its uses to travellers.
“When the Spanish brought sunflowers from America, they were wild in Mexico, it took 250 years to convert them into cultivation. First they used them as ornamental plants, until a Russian came up with the idea of pressing the nugget and extracting the oil”, he comments smiling.
Spain is the third largest producer in the world. Many families depend on him. But in addition, it is a crop widely used by beekeepers in summer (when there are few flowers available for bees).
"Yes, it is a very nice crop and very much ours but at the same time very despised and not very profitable" comments Antonio, who recommends reading "the farmers' bible, Extensive arable crops , by Professor Andrés Guerrero" for all those who want to learn more about the plant.
At night, the flowers turn in the opposite direction and at dawn they are ready to follow the sun again.
In recent years, the importation of the pipe from Argentina, Russia or Ukraine at a low price, the value of Spanish pipes sinks and the farmers do not extract even to pay the costs of production, so that traditional cultivation is disappearing.
“In recent years, What has contributed to the profitability of sunflower cultivation is the High Oleic that although it does not have a quality comparable to that of olive oil organoleptically, it is comparable, in terms of health, and is cheaper than olive oil. That is why it is being introduced more in the industry”, concludes Antonio.
In the meantime, As long as the sunflower resists, we will enjoy it. Given the starting gun, you have until July, when harvesting begins in the province of Córdoba and Seville (although in other parts of Spain you can see them until August), to enjoy their colors and energy. Of course, do it first thing in the morning, before 40ºC fall on you in the shade.
Spain is the third producer in the world