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Subscribe to RSSA woman walks amongst sunflowers during the Sunflower Festival in Zama, Japan on July 31, 2012. More than half a million sunflowers will attract visitors until the middle of August at several venues in the city.
Toru Yamanaka / AFP - Getty Images
Fields of sunflowers greet Tour de France riders
Joel Saget / AFP - Getty Images
The pack rides past a field of sunflowers during the seventh stage of the 2012 Tour de France.
Yoshikazu Tsuno / AFP - Getty Images
Sunflowers planted by local elemenary school children grow in the tsunami hit field in in Natori, in Miyagi prefecture, July 15. Japan has campaign to grow sunflowers to help decontaminate radioactive soil, in response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster that followed March's massive quake and tsunami.
Sunflowers being planted to decontaminate the soil in Japan
Apparently sunflowers were used to decontaminate soil in Ukraine after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. What a pretty way to clean up.
AFP reports:
Volunteers are being asked to grow sunflowers this year, then send the seeds to the stricken area where they will be planted next year to help get rid of radioactive contaminants in the plant's fallout zone.
The campaign, launched by young entrepreneurs and civil servants in Fukushima prefecture last month, aims to cover large areas in yellow blossoms as a symbol of hope and reconstruction and to lure back tourists.
More from the Daily Yomiuri online.