There is no need to do this with domesticated sunflower seed.
A sunflower seed is an achene which means a simple dry fruit. The sunflower seed are referred to as the fruit of the Sunflower because it is produce by the plant.
The shell of a sunflower which is white and black striped protects the seed inside of it. The seed, if planted becomes a sunflower plant.
Plant a sunflower seed
The whole seed.
They call it this because most of the sunflower is flower sperm. The sac holding the sunflower seed is full of the sperm.
No. Sunflowers are a plant. At least one company has come up with a beverage made from the seed kernels and they label it a "sunflower beverage".
For the sunflower (Helianthus annuus), the seed is a multilayered future plant that is enjoyed as a food source by many. What you see, when you have a sunflower seed, is the hard shell. It can be all black or striped. Break that open and you have the actual seed. The outer most covering on the seed, usually you don't notice it, is call the integumentary or seed coat.
EVERY plant produces fruit. fruit is a "seed holder." without the fruit, and the seed it contains, no plant could reproduce itself. in the case of the sunflower, the FRUIT is the HULL surrounding the seed. the HULL is an example of a SIMPLE DRY FRUIT, otherwise known botanically as a CYPSELA.
sunflower
Short answer: YES, the sunflower can be considered an herb. The sunflower (Helianthus annuus) is a flowering annual dicot. As an annual, it is a herbaceous plant instead of a woody plant. It is no longer used as a medicinal herb, as it was by Native Americans many centuries ago. An herb is defined as any plant used for flavoring, food, medicine or perfume. The sunflower seed is used for human food, and the sunflower leaf and seed can be used for livestock feed; therefore, the sunflower can be classified as an herb.
You have to crack or crush the shell and then tear it open to release the seed. Some people do this by biting the shell.
The seed could be exposed to chemicals or radiation that could cause a mutation. Or the pollen from different types of sunflowers could pollinate different sunflower flowers. Sometimes a virus will mutate a flower.