Helianthus annuus

More commonly known as the Sunflower. The above picture shows an un-opened bud.

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Subfamily: Helianthoideae
Tribe: Heliantheae
Genus: Helianthus
Binomial name
Helianthus annuus

The sunflower is the state flower of the US state of Kansas, and one of the city flowers of Kitakyūshū, Japan.

The sunflower is often used as a symbol of green ideology, much as the red rose is a symbol of socialism or social democracy. *The sunflower is also the symbol of the Vegan Society.

During the late 19th century, the flower was used as the symbol of the Aesthetic Movement.
Subject of Van Gogh's most famous still life, Sunflowers (series of paintings)

The sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine.

The sunflower was chosen as the symbol of the Spiritualist Church for many reasons, but mostly because it turns toward the sun as "Spiritualism turns toward the light of truth". Modern Spiritualists always have art or jewelry with sunflower designs

This is probably more like the picture most folk have of a sunflower.

The uses for this plant are numerous, we all know of sunflower bakery products but did you know a peanut butter alternative known as Sunbutter is also made, sunflower oil for cooking, it is also used as an alternative to produce hypo-allergenic rubber well as you can see lots of uses and very versatile. I prefer to think of it as an ornamental plant that can attract a vast range of wild birds into our gardens!
A rarely known use was as a symbol of the solar diety (sun god) by the likes of the Aztec, Otomi people of Mexico and the Inca's in south America.

Sun flowers have a type of phototropic response called heliotropism (sun turning); the leaves and flower heads of young sunflowers follow the sun and their orientation therefore changes from east to west during the day.
The movements become a circadian response and when plants are rotated 180 degrees, the old response pattern is still followed for a few days, with leaf orientation changing from west to east instead.
The leaf and flower bud phototropism occurs while the leaf petioles and stems are still actively growing and once mature the movements stop. The movement occurs as the petioles bend or twist during the day and at night they unbend or untwist

Sunflowers can be used to extract toxic ingredients from soil, such as lead, arsenic and uranium. They were used to remove cesium-137 and strontium-90 from a nearby pond after the Chernobyl disaster.

One of the most useful and versatile plants around.