The Sunflower (Helianthus annuus, the common sunflower) is worldwide known for its beauty and Vincent van Gogh paintings. Sunflower fields are now a global tourism phenomenon, with destinations in France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and increasingly Colombia attracting visitors for photography, wellness, and agrotourism experiences.
Although they are treated as weeds, they fulfill an important function: their ability to grow in all types of environments and their resistance to drought allows them to invade degraded sites, where they detain the soil. Also, because they produce a lot of nectar, they attract numerous pollinators, such as bees.
Origin of Sunflowers
Indigenous domestication
Sunflowers were domesticated by Mesoamerican Indian tribes, and are traditionally associated with pre-Columbian Mexican cultures. They were cultivated more for their usefulness than for their beauty.
However, the sunflower was used as a symbol representing the sun deity, primarily by the Aztecs and Otomies in Mexico and the Incas in Peru.
In 1532, Francisco Pizarro entered Peru, where he found a gigantic sunflower that the indigenous people of the Inca empire worshipped as a sacred image of the sun god. Then, gold figures of this flower, as well as seeds, were taken to Europe at the beginning of the 16th century.
Crops and Sunflower Tourism
Nowadays, their cultivation for oil extraction has been widespread in Spain since about 1980, thanks to subsidies from the European Economic Community. The same happens in the United Stated.
However, this is not the only appeal of sunflowers; the beauty of their fields attracts millions of tourists around the world.
Today there are sunflower fields on every continent, but the sunflower fields in Spain and Italy are the most famous for their unparalleled beauty.
The most beautiful sunflower fields in Spain are those found in the regions of La Bureba in Burgos, Cardejón in Soria, Carmona in Seville and Antequera in Malaga.
On the other hand, the most famous sunflower field in Italy is in the Tuscany region.
Sunflower Movement
Every day, sunflowers move towards the sun, following it on its east-west route. At night they move in the opposite direction, as if waiting for the sun to rise the next morning.
But one day they stop doing so, since when they reach maturity they stop their dance, do not turn again and remain oriented indefinitely towards the east until they die.
This movement, called heliotropism, is regulated by the circadian rhythm of the plants, and favors their growth.
And the truth is, it is not the flower that turns, it is the uneven growth of its stems that causes the turning. And when they stop growing, they stop turning.
That they stop is not entirely sad, since when they reach maturity, the plant is ready to be pollinated. The flowers release additional heat, which makes them more attractive to pollinating insects.
Find out more in the Science Report Circadian regulation of sunflower heliotropism, floral orientation, and pollinator visits: Sun-tracking when young, east-facing when mature, warmer sunflowers attract more pollinators.
Sunflower Tourism in Colombia
Research on sunflower cultivation in Colombia has been carried out since the late 1950s. But it was not until 1985 that the first sunflower field was planted for commercial production. The first crops were planted in Valle del Cauca, Tolima and Cesar.
In general, sunflower grows well in Colombia, from sea level to 2600 meter above sea level, so much so that today there are crops in Bogota. However, it was not until 2020 that some fields began to be used for tourism.
Today, there are several destinations where you can visit sunflower fields in Colombia, but today I will talk about the most suitable for visit: San Martin, in the department of Meta, in the eastern plains of Colombia, Montes de Maria in the department of Bolivar, in the Colombian Caribbean region, and Valledupar in the department of Cesar, also part of the Caribbean region.
Sunflower Tourism in San Martin, Meta
The municipality of San Martin de los Llanos is located one hour from Villavicencio, capital of Meta. The annual sowing of sunflowers in a private plot of land in San Martín de los Llanos is the place that delights the visitor’s eyes with a minefield of this plant.
For more than five years, between the months of October and November, the sunflower crop blooms, and every year tourists are treated to the experience of walking among a crop of large and impressive sunflowers.
The tour starts at 10:00 in the morning or at 3:00 in the afternoon, from the municipality of San Martin with the indications of the authorized guides.
To get there you have to cross a 3-kilometer dirt road from San Martin; since it is private land, it is not permitted to indicate the exact location of the place.
Sunflower Tourism in Montes de María (or Serranía de San Jacinto), Bolívar
Between the departments of Bolívar and Sucre, in the Colombian Caribbean, is located the sub-region of Montes de María, a vast territory of agricultural and livestock tradition whose geographical location consolidated it as a corridor that connects a large part of the country with the Caribbean region and some of its main ports.
The Montes de María (also known as Serranía de San Jacinto) length does not exceed 110 km and its altitudes are less than 1,200 meters above sea level.
Sara Colmenares holds a Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) in Ecology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and a Master’s degree in Botany from the same institution. Her doctoral research focused on palm ecology in the Atlantic Forest, supported by the Rufford Foundation conservation grant.
A published researcher in the Brazilian Journal of Plant Physiology and a member of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC), Sara has presented her work at international conferences across Latin America and beyond. She was awarded the COLCIENCIAS “Virginia Gutiérrez de Pineda” fellowship, one of Colombia’s most competitive academic distinctions for young researchers.
Sara founded the Sula nature tourism brand in 2018, applying her scientific expertise to develop birding and wildlife experiences across Colombia’s six natural regions. Her fieldwork took her from the cloud forests of the Andes to the Amazon basin, the Pacific coast, and the plains of the Orinoquía. She combined deep ecological knowledge with firsthand experience to create content that is both scientifically accurate and practically useful for nature travelers.
She holds a B.Sc. in Biology from the National University of Colombia, where she also taught plant ecophysiology. She speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and English.