Why Sunflowers in These Videos Aren’t Facing the Sun

In early August 2024, a viral TikTok made the audacious claim that “something just isn’t right with the sun anymore.” The post’s evidence? A patch of sunflowers, known for turning their flowers throughout the day to follow the sun, were facing away from it. Several other videos documenting the same phenomenon dating back several years were found.

Although the posts did not always conclude the behavior of the sunflowers, the underlying implication suggested something unnatural and possibly a large-scale conspiracy. Some users speculated that the sun had been replaced with artificial light, and that the sunflowers were actually following the “real sun.” These theories were backed by others commenting that “nature is constantly giving us signs,” noting changes in their tanning experiences, observing the sun’s color shift from yellow to white, and theorizing that the April 2024 solar eclipse could be involved.

However, using the sunflower’s “strange” behavior as evidence for a large conspiracy falters if the behavior is not odd in the first place. Contrary to popular belief, sunflowers don’t always turn to follow the sun.

This turning behavior, known as heliotropism, comes from the Greek for “sun” and “turn.” Although it’s mostly associated with the sunflower (scientific name Helianthus annus), botanists have observed and recorded this behavior in many different plants for a long time. Whether the sunflower truly follows the sun has been debated just as long, with herbalists back in the 1500s questioning if the behavior was real.

The truth lies somewhere in between; juvenile sunflowers follow the sun throughout the day, but this behavior ceases once the plant reaches maturity.

A research group at the University of California, Davis discovered that, similar to humans, sunflowers have internal alarm clocks called a circadian rhythm, allowing them to make changes based on the time of day. While humans generally associate circadian rhythms with sleep cycles, juvenile sunflowers use their rhythms to track the sun.

According to the group’s research, a juvenile sunflower follows the sun by growing only one side of its stem depending on the time of day. When the sun is out, the plant’s stem grows more on the eastern side, pushing the head of the flower towards the west as the sun moves. During the night, the plant’s stem grows more on the western side, moving the flower head back towards the east, where the sun will rise in the morning.

However, once sunflowers mature, their circadian rhythm changes to strongly favor early-morning light. Consequently, the flowers settle down and always face east to capture the morning sun instead of following it across the sky.

So, no, the sun hasn’t been replaced. The sunflowers in the viral videos are simply mature sunflowers, not juveniles. Although these sunflowers used to track the sun, they stopped upon reaching maturity to face east.

Sources: Extension | What Is Heliotropism? 1 June 2021, https://extension.wvu.edu/lawn-gardening-pests/news/2021/06/01/what-is-heliotropism.

Fell, Andy. “How Sunflowers See the Sun.” UC Davis, 31 Oct. 2023, https://www.ucdavis.edu/curiosity/news/how-sunflowers-see-sun.

—. “Sunflowers Move by the Clock.” UC Davis, 4 Aug. 2016, https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/sunflowers-move-clock.

Kennedy, Merrit. “The Mystery Of Why Sunflowers Turn To Follow The Sun — Solved.” NPR, 5 Aug. 2016. NPR, https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/08/05/488891151/the-mystery-of-why-sunflowers-turn-to-follow-the-sun-solved.

Lang, A. R. G., and J. E. Begg. “Movements of Helianthus Annuus Leaves and Heads.” The Journal of Applied Ecology, vol. 16, no. 1, Apr. 1979, p. 299. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.2307/2402749.

Vandenbrink, Joshua P., et al. Turning Heads: The Biology of Solar Tracking in Sunflower. July 2014. escholarship.org, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plantsci.2014.04.006.