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Posted on Mon, Sep. 01, 2008

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State's iconic symbol once considered a weed

The Wichita Eagle

This is one in a series of vignettes celebrating Kansas history. The series' name comes from the state motto, Ad astra per aspera: "To the stars through difficulties."

BY BECCY TANNER

"Sunflower badge worn by Kansas delegates at the G.A.R. convention in St. Louis attracted attention. The Newton Daily Republican believed they would attach the name of sunflower state of Kansas."

--Kansas newspapers

Sept. 30, 1887

What Kansan could imagine Kansas without sunflowers?

You might as well imagine a land without prairie and blue sky as imagine Kansas without its iconic flower.

The flower is emblazoned on almost anything that symbolizes the 34th state.

It's on coffee cups, quilts, postcards and buttons.

There is a commission, a soccer association, a coal-fired power plant, the highest point in Kansas, a health care management association, a television show, a kennel club and a dental office all named for the Kansas sunflower.

"Whereas, This flower has to all Kansans a historic symbolism which speaks of frontier days, winding trails, pathless prairies, and is full of the life and

glory of the past, the pride of the present, and richly emblematic of the majesty of a golden future, and is a flower which has given Kansas the world-wide name, the sunflower state: therefore,

"Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas: That the helianthus or wild native sunflower is hereby made, designated and declared to be the state flower and floral emblem of the state of Kansas."

The Rev. John Pratt, who came to Kansas as a missionary in 1837, wrote in his journal that his first view of the Kansas prairies was of an unbroken green outlined by trees along the creeks and rivers. It wasn't until years later he began to see yellow sunflowers dotting the horizon.

The Kansas City Star reported in August 1948 that the species of sunflower that grows wild in Kansas is native to Peru and was brought to Mexico by Spanish explorers and into Kansas by the 16th century.

Some believe it may have been encouraged to grow in Kansas by travelers along the Santa Fe Trail.

The bright flowers were stuck in horse bridles to decorate teams on their journey. As the flowers dried, the seeds would drop along the trail.

The flowers thrived. So prolific were they, some pioneers took a dim view of the flowers and wanted them declared weeds. In 1895 the Kansas Legislature voted the sunflower a noxious weed and ordered it cleared from the state.

Some Kansans viewed the flower as emblematic of what it took to survive on the prairie.

In 1930, Kansas writer Marvin Creager would write that the sunflower "made its own way.... It stood by the dusty roadside and out on the high prairie.... It turned its gold petals and black center always toward the sun, no matter how fiercely the sun beat down.... It never lost courage."

At the end of summer, Creager wrote, the sunflower "was the last bit of vegetation to surrender to the hot winds.... It loved life, and it was genuine."

In 1903, it became the state flower. In 1925, the sunflower became and still is the lone symbol on the state banner.

Reach Beccy Tanner at 316-268-6336 or btanner@wichitaeagle.com.