By Susan Milius
From Madison, Wis., at a meeting of the Botanical Society of America
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2002/08/1562.jpg?resize=150%2C113&ssl=1)
Comparison between crop and wild sunflower genes suggests that the plant followed an easy route to domestication.
Archaeologists estimate that people transformed wild sunflowers into a user-friendly form some 4,000 years ago, explains John M. Burke, now at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. The shift conferred traits such as self-fertilization and bigger seeds.