Day dreaming out the train window as we sped from Venice, along the Adriatic Sea towards Pescara, Italy -- my thoughts drifted to images of the Fourth Sister secrets. They matched the view out the window.

Inside the train cabin everyone was fast asleep except me. No doubt they were dreaming of a break from museums, statues, and endless sightseeing, and resting up for a few days at the beach resort we'd booked.

Enjoying the relative silence, uncommon when you are on an extended vacation as a family of six -- the panorama led my mind back to sitting at the feet of Señora Carlotta Arguellas, as she told me the truths about the Fourth Sister Secrets.

"The Fourth Sister was the baby of the family, and she was the keeper of family secrets that have been whispered across the Americas, for generations upon generations."

"She was a member of the Sun family, possessing a proud family name older than mankind can remember. She was the baby of the family, born in Tahuantinsuyo, Peru."

"Fourth Sister, didn't look anything like her other sisters, although she was as tall and as slender as First Sister. That seemed fair to all, because Third Sister and Second Sister shared similar, but different features. They could climb and run, while their other two sisters were forced to stand tall and proud."

"Mother Sun explained the differences, in that each sister had her job, but all were to benefit one another, and nourish the rest of the family that cared for them. Each daughter was born to the Sun family, solely to protect the other."

"Fourth Sister's job was most important to them all -- for she was the guardian of the North, planted firmly, to be at the mercy of the robbers who soon would come."

As native peoples various stories often go, Señora Carlotta Arguellas' tale of this additional "sister" may not be transparent in meaning to non-indigenous people. You see, these legends were intended as teaching tools, designed to make curious minds, especially those of children -- to ask questions and remember the lesson.

What she was talking about was the Native American gardening practice of combining corn, beans, squash (three sisters) with the "fourth sister" -- sunflowers.  

The Sisters are known as the “mothers of life.” Along with them, are campfire stories, special customs, celebration and ceremonies that tell of their glorious role in the food chain of life.

This all works well scientifically. Good crops of corn require nitrogen, and the roots of the beans contain nitrogen providing bacteria.

The squash overtakes weeds and keeps soil shaded and moist. The beans and the squash provide a deterrent from four legged raiders of corn.

The corn provides a place for the beans to climb. The sunflowers keep the birds from devouring the corn. That kind of harmony in nature brings prosperity to the farmers and happiness to the home in the form of full bellies.

Modern day gardeners might dismiss this method of growing sunflowers as simply companion planting. However, the native peoples method is a lot more intricate in approach and it varies from tribe to tribe in technique. Those tribes that used the “Three Sisters” approach, always planted on handmade hills

Where the Fourth Sister (sunflowers) comes into this inter-planting technique -- is in a planting of rows of sunflowers on the North side of the garden area. By planting in this northern position, due to heliotropism (see below), the sunflowers offer their faces first, to the delight of thieving birds, who much prefer them over corn -- thus saving First Sister's corn crop.

In a world of "pretty" where gardeners are often more concerned about what the neighbors might think -- this inter-planting method -- sadly isn't in favor, unless you live out in the country where prying eyes aren't easily offended.

Heliotropism -- Now, there's a word that's not in the common base of knowledge and every day conversation.

In simple terms -- It's all about waking up to look East at sunrise, and turning your face from East to West, as you follow the sun for the rest of the day. At sunset, you end your day facing East once again, so once again you are ready for the new day after you've gotten some sleep.

Apparently, this works fine if you are a sunflower and no one knows it better than the flexible buds of sunflowers. However, once the bud stage of a sunflower matures, the long stem of the plant stiffens (like getting arthritis) and the bloom begins.

The poor sunflower is no longer heliotopic again and is doomed to being forever frozen eastward as the stem and leaves lose their green color. Science has been unable to discover why this happens, but the theory is that this is some sort of natural defense.

• Cut flowers
• Peanut Butter alternative (known as Sun Butter)
• Sonnenboumenkernbrot (Sunflower whole seed bread)
• Bird food
• Sunflower oil for cooking
• Carrier oil
• Aid in the production of margarine
• Bio-diesel
• Livestock feed
• Dye (from hulls)
• Thickening for soups and stews
• Alternative coffee (roasted hulls are steeped)
• Hair conditioner
• Alternative medicine (diuretic, treatment of pulmonary and whooping cough)
• Moisturizer

• American Giant
• Arikara
• Autumn Beauty
• Autumn Mix
• Aztec Sun
• Black Oil
• Sunspot
• Evening Sun
• Giant Primrose
• Indian Blanket
• Irish Eyes
• Italian White
• Kong
• Large Grey Stripe
• Lemon Queen
• Mammoth Sunflower
• Mongolian Giant
• Music Mix
• Orange Sun
• Red Sun
• Ring of Fire
• Rostov
• Soraya
• Strawberry Blond
• Sunny
• Taiyo
• Tarahumara
• Teddy Bear
• Titan
• Valentine
• Velvet Queen

Italy ranks seventh in the world in the number of fields planted in sunflowers. While much of sunflower commercial crops are centred in Tuscany, one can see fields of sunflowers everywhere in the country.

Pescara is the classic Italian seaside resort – friendly, clean, dominated by pleasant families and offering some of the finest seafood restaurants in Italy.

When you travel in Italy during the summer, you can't help but notice the happy, almost human-like faces of fields of sunflowers all waving to you.

We've been taught that sunflowers play a vital role in both cancer survival and preventing cancers.

A few years back when my husband was in a fight for his life against cancer, he was flown to the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, in Zion, Illinois. At the time, we lived in a rural community where diagnosis and treatment for life-threatening cancers was practically non-existent.

Part of surviving cancer, is throwing out all of your pre-conceived ideas about an anti-cancer diet and the necessity of proper nutrition, if you are going to beat your enemy. Both sunflower seed and oil were part of that highly supervised regime.

Happily, he beat cancer, in part we believe due to eating healthy. Sunflowers oil and seeds are rich in Vitamin A and Vitamin E and they played a role in his complete recovery.

Currently, it is thought that the protein found in sunflower seeds are potentially a new treatment for stopping aggressive prostrate cancer tumours from spreading to the bone

• What we call a sunflower is actually the head of many small flowers?
• That the outer flowers (florets) of a sunflower can be many colors besides the traditional yellow. They can be maroon (almost black), orange, lemon colored, red, and even white.
• Sunflower "seeds" are actually the fruit of the sunflower plant.
• The seed husk is the outside of the fruit, and the true seed is inside the kernel.
• Sunflowers are only native to the Americas.
• Wild perennial sunflowers are often considered a weed in commercially grown parts of the U.S. This is because they can have a negative impact on yields with hybrid crops.
• Sunflowers extract toxic ingredients from soil.
• Sunflowers have been used to remove lead from soil.
• Sunflowers have been used to remove arsenic from soil.
• Sunflowers have been used to remove uranium, cesium-137 and strontium-90 from soils (Chernobyl accident).
• Sunflowers are bird magnets.
• Sunflower pollen stains anything it comes into contact with.
• Sunflower pollen was often used as paint for Native Americans.
• The largest commercial producer of sunflower products is Russia.
• Argentina, China, India, Turkey, and South Africa are also all global producers of sunflowers and sunflower products.
• Within the United States, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Texas, and California are the top sunflower growing states.
• The tallest sunflower on record was almost twenty-five and a half feet tall.
• The larges sunflower face on record measured thirty-two inches across.
• Sunflowers are important to attracting beneficial insects, such as bees.

Scattered over the United States western plains, Sunflowers (Helianthus) reach their climax display. Large and small, tall and short, they turn their yellow faces constantly to the source of light and life.

"The Sunflower turns on her god when he sets

The same look which she turned when he rose."

-- Thomas Moore

The display of golden disks is not limited to the true sunflowers, but is shared by the Dwarf Sunflower (Helianthella) and the Balsam-root (Balsamorrhiza). The latter has a thick root abounding in gum, while the leaves of both form a loose rosette about the leafless stem that bears the flowers.