compass plant
Sylphium laciniatum latin

After they found a compass plant stem, the males were able to locate a female inside, again by smell.

They are poised with their edges on a north-south axis, hence its American name, the compass plant.

The taproot of the compass plant may grow to more than 9-14 ft. deep, making it hardy and resistant to drought.

It is also known as the compass plant, as in the sun the upper leaves twist round to hold their margins upright.

(treatise on compass plants); Jena 1883.

Compass plants are so named because they tend to align their foliage North - South to present the minimum surface area to the hot noon sunshine.

Wasps emerge from compass plant stems about a month before they emerge from prairie dock stems.

The researchers showed that the compass plant wasps were able to recognize other compass plant stems using their sense of smell.

Silphium laciniatum (compass plant)

So when a male emerges from a compass plant, it has to find other compass plant stems on the ground if it hopes to find any females soon.

The subject was nature on the familiar scale, the kind embodied in the restored prairie on the Fermilab campus - some 1,200 acres of compass plant and rattlesnake master and other species.

The researchers, whose study appears in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, studied gall wasps in prairie dock and another Silphium species, the compass plant.

Silphium laciniatum (Compass Flower, Compass Plant or Rosinweed) is a species of flowering plant in the genus Silphium.

They took turns steering it, Grundy asking the fish and water plants for directions, Dor asking the water, and Irene growing a compass plant that pointed toward the great river they wanted.

In the rejuvenation of prairie, with its plants like rattlesnake-master (thought to be an antidote for snakebite) and compass plant (its leaves are said to have pointed the way across the prairie for pioneers), there is also a palpable sense of loss.

He also wrote on natural history, writing the first scientific description of the ability of the compass plant (Silphium laciniatum) to orient itself in a north-south direction, as well as writing about winter grazing in the Rocky Mountains.

Efforts were made to clear invasive species such as garlic mustard and buckthorn, and replace them with native plants and grasses like goldenrod, tall coreopsis, compass plant, cup plant, aster, coneflower, switchgrass, rattlesnake masters, woodland brome and cinquefoil.

While the plant life varies by season, species observed in the park include: lead plant, purple coneflower, wild bergamot, and purple prairie clover, black-eyed susan, tall coreopsis, compass plant, wild quinine, rattlesnake master, New Jersey tea, big bluestem, switch grass, and Indian grass.