Sunflower
The sunflower is a fast warm-season oilseed from the North American prairies, now grown across the mid-latitude steppe. Reasonably drought-hardy and undemanding, it belts the continental grasslands, led by the Black Sea countries of Ukraine and Russia.
How it grows
Sunflower is borne on the flower-head of an upright plant.
What it’s worth to grow
Farm-gate value = the price farmers are paid per kilogram (FAOSTAT producer prices, median of 244 positive country-year observations spanning 2018–2024). It tracks how costly and labour-intensive a crop is to grow — almonds and vanilla command a premium; potatoes and cereals are cheap staples.
Where Earth's climate suits sunflower
Climatic suitability only — scored for every 0.5° of the planet from this crop's temperature and rainfall tolerances (FAO EcoCrop) on AgroClim 1991–2025 normals (AgERA5 temperature, CHIRPS/ERA5 rainfall). It shows where the rain-fed climate permits the crop, not where it is grown today; irrigation lets many crops thrive in drier country than the map suggests (California, Egypt, the Indus and Nile).
Who grows it — and where the climate merely allows it
The climate where it grows
— mean monthly temperature ▍ monthly rainfall — averaged over the actual growing areas (the suitable cells) inside each country, so it reflects where the crop is really grown, not the national average. AgroClim 1991–2025 normals. The 🌧 badge is the last 3 months’ rainfall as a percentage of the 1991–2020 CHIRPS normal (through 2025-12) — the current drought/deluge signal.
Climate envelope · FAO EcoCrop
Deep bar = optimal range; pale bar = absolute tolerance. Beyond the pale bar the crop fails. Latitude tolerance ±55° · soil pH 5.5–8.
Growing calendar & hazards
A summer annual sown in late spring and harvested in autumn, tracking the sun through the long days of a single frost-free season.
- Drought. Deep-rooted and tough, but severe drought at flowering still caps the oil yield.
- Frost. A frost-free summer is required from sowing to harvest.
- Wet harvest & rot. A wet autumn brings head rot and downgrades the seed.