The University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman is known for many things, usually academic and political. Topnotchers. Past Presidents of the Philippines. Justices and Chief Justices of the Supreme Court. Leaders of Congress. Nationalists and activists. The last thing you’d hear about U.P. are zombies roaming around the campus, looking for plants to eat. Sunflowers, included.
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- Sunflowers along University Avenue in UP Diliman, Quezon City
Most people, at least the internet-savvy, would possibly associate sunflowers with the highly-addicting Plants vs. Zombies computer game. Besides, we thought that talk about flowers in UP would end with the fire trees. These are trees, more permanent. We can always expect the fiery red-orange blooms the next year. Not so with sunflowers.
[Read also The Fire Trees of UP Diliman (Quezon City)]
But we’ve noticed the sunflowers in UP during the past summers. They are hardly noticeable as they start the 6-month life span. The green sunflower plant, obviously flowerless at first, line up the University Avenue and blend with the rest of the plants. Without the yellow flowers, the untrained eye won’t be able to pick them out. Unless you know, and expect, them to be out this summer.
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- Zombie attacking the sunflower plants
The flower of the sunflower plant (that sounds really weird) is more complicated than meets the eye. What’s complicated about a yellow flower that appears to follow the sun’s trip from east to west of the horizon? Let’s start with why the last sentence is erroneous.
The sunflower is not a single flower. It’s a composite flower consisting of mini-flowers called florets — the ray florets at the edge and the disc florets in the middle. The disc florets mature into seeds and are arranged into a spiral pattern, a pattern which reportedly fits a sequential Fibonacci number.
Not as simple as it looks.
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- Row of sunflowers at UP Diliman, Quezon City
The sunflowers simply reflect one of the many image of UP as a microcosm of the Philippine society, with serious and less-serious sides. One may see the seemingly superficial side, like the joggers and bikers along the no-vehicle half of the academic oval, but there’s more here than meets the eye.
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Hi Tenee. I am planning to blog about the sunflower in UP Diliman in my math blog http://mathandmultimedia.com or http://mathpalette.com. Can I use and crop one of your images?
I will mention and link it back to your blog.
I’m from UP Diliman by the way.
Hello Mr. Bautista (sorry, don’t know if you prefer Guillermo), please do, with the attribution. It’s good that we have the sunflowers here. The ones in University Avenue are all gone by now. Looking forward to next summer.