How old is the sunflower in Mexico?

Contrary to Lentz et al. (1), I suggested that the sunflower was carried from North America to Europe, not from North America to Mexico. They also misinterpret a number of early documents. In the original Mexican edition of Hernández, Ximénez (2) neither included a drawing of sunflower nor indicated its use by Indians (indios). Hernández called the sunflower chimalacatl and variants, which translates as ‘‘shield reed’’ or ‘‘shield flower.’’ Lentz et al. concluded that when used in Sahagún (3) the term ‘‘chimalacatl’’ refers to sunflower. They fail to mention that Hernández (4) applies the term to more than one plant, however, while citing my paper in which this is reported. Two of the different chimalacatl described by Hernández are pertinent here: Del CHIMALACATL acatlicpacense o escudo de caña. . . . Cazrrizo de escudos, esto es, propio para hacer escudos o rodelas (‘‘Reed of shields . . . suitable for making shields or round shields’’), and CHIMALACAXOCHITL o flor de chimalacatl . . . carrizo propio para escudos o rodelas, y xochitl, flor. (‘‘f lower’’). These two chimalacatl are likely the shield reed and the shield flower of Sahagún (3). Thus, Sahagún’s drawings that Lentz et al. purport to be sunflowers (which do not resemble sunflowers) have to refer to another plant. I agree that Hernández’s description demonstrates his knowledge of sunflower, but this could have been acquired from observation of plants in Spain and his reading of herbals. From Monardes (2) he could have learned that the sunflower was used as an aphrodisiac, and almost certainly his designation of Peru as its homeland comes from Dodonaeus (5). I have yet to see any historical records that confirm the early presence of the sunflower in Mexico.