Silphium laciniatum

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Silphium laciniatum
Silphium laciniatum Arkansas.jpg
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe) [1]
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Silphium
Species:
S. laciniatum
Binomial name
Silphium laciniatum
L.

Silphium laciniatum is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known commonly as compassplant [2] or compass plant. It is native to North America, where it occurs in Ontario in Canada and the eastern and central United States as far west as New Mexico. [3] Other common names include prairie compass plant, [4] pilotweed, polarplant, [3] gum weed, cut-leaf silphium, and turpentine plant. [5] It is a rosinweed of genus Silphium .

Contents

Description

Flower head Silphium laciniatum.jpg
Flower head
Leaves Silphium laciniatum leaves (9292304354).jpg
Leaves

This plant is a taprooted perennial herb producing rough-haired stems usually one to three meters tall. The leaves are variable in shape and size, being 4 to 60 cm (1+1⁄2 to 23+1⁄2 in) long and 1 to 30 cm (1⁄2 to 11+3⁄4 in) wide. They are hairy, smooth-edged or toothed, and borne on petioles or not. The back of the flower head has layers of rough, glandular phyllaries. The head contains 27 to 38 yellow ray florets and many yellow disc florets. The fruit is a cypsela which can be almost 2 cm (3⁄4 in) long and is tipped with a pappus of two short awns. [6]

Biology

The common name compass plant was inspired by the "compass orientation" [4] of its leaves. [5] The large leaves are held vertically with the tips pointing north or south and the upper and lower surfaces of the blades facing east or west. A newly emerging leaf grows in a random direction, but within two or three weeks it twists on its petiole clockwise or counterclockwise into a vertical position. Studies indicate that the sun's position in the early morning hours influences the twisting orientation. [4] This orientation reduces the amount of solar radiation hitting the leaf surface. [7] Vertical leaves facing east-west have higher water use efficiency than horizontal or north-south-facing blades. [8]

Early settlers on the Great Plains could make their way in the dark by feeling of the leaves. [4]

An early, (if not the earliest) descriptive naming of the compass plant is found in the 1843 hunting trip of William Clark Kennerly, who upon leaving Westport Kansas in May 1843, observed the plant and began its description in his trip: "Westward we went, and still westward, through a flat, arid country with no verdure except the compass plant, which we named for the reason that its large, flat leaves always pointed north and south".

Ecology

Surveys of the insect fauna on typical compass plants have noted many different taxa, often present in large numbers. One plant can produce up to 12 stems. Surveys counted an average of nearly 80 insects on each stem or within its tissues. The vast majority of insects on the stems are the gall wasps Antistrophus rufus and A. minor , and the many types of parasitoids that attack them. [9] The gall wasps, especially A. rufus, inject eggs into the stem, an action that induces the formation of a gall in the plant tissue. The larva of the wasp lives and feeds inside the gall, overwinters there, and emerges as an adult the following spring. [10] Over 600 galls can be in a single stem. [11] The galls are internal in this species, and generally not visible. [9] The adult female A. rufus locates an appropriate site to oviposit by detecting plant volatiles emitted by the fresh growing stem of its host plant, a mix of monoterpenes. [10] The male A. rufus also uses the volatiles in his search for mates. Females mate immediately upon emergence from the gall, and the male uses volatiles to find a gall containing a female, as evidenced by the movements of his antennae upon the plant's surface. He then waits there for her to emerge. [12]

Other insects found in the plant include several species of parasitoid wasps that attack A. rufus larvae in the galls, the two most common being Eurytoma luta and Ormyrus labotus . Others include Eupelmus vesicularis and species of the genera Brasema and Homoporus . The beetle Mordellistena aethiops lives on the plant, its larvae boring into the stems, and it is attacked by parasitoid wasps of the genera Schizopyramnus , Heterospilus , and Tetrastichus . [9]

Many birds and mammals feed on the fruits of the plant. The eastern kingbird perches on the tall plant to watch for insect prey. Livestock find it palatable. [5]

Uses

The plant had a variety of uses among Native American groups. The bitter, resinous sap could be made into a chewing gum. [5] [7] [13] The Pawnee made a tisane with it. [5] Many groups burned the dried root as a charm during lightning. [13]

The plant is cultivated in gardens. [7]

Literature

In 1882 Benjamin Alvord reviewed the literature on the plant and offered his observations. [14]

In the environmental classic, A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold devotes much of the July entry to Silphium—its hardiness, but its slow disappearance nevertheless, a harbinger of the fate of the prairie. "It is easy now to predict the future. For a few years my Silphium will try in vain to rise above the mowing machine, and then it will die. With it will die the prairie epoch."

Related Research Articles

<i>Silphium</i> (genus) Genus of plants

Silphium is a genus of North American plants in the tribe Heliantheae within the family Asteraceae.

<i>Symphyotrichum novae-angliae</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae native to central and eastern North America

Symphyotrichum novae-angliae is a species of flowering plant in the aster family (Asteraceae) native to central and eastern North America. Commonly known as New England aster, hairy Michaelmas-daisy, or Michaelmas daisy, it is a perennial, herbaceous plant usually between 30 and 120 centimeters tall and 60 to 90 cm wide.

<i>Arnoglossum atriplicifolium</i> Species of flowering plant

Arnoglossum atriplicifolium, the pale Indian plantain, is a perennial herbaceous wildflower in the sunflower family (Asteraceae). native to the central and eastern United States. It can reach heights of up to 3 metres (10 ft), with dramatic clusters of white flowers at the top of a central, unbranching stalk.

<i>Sporobolus heterolepis</i> Species of flowering plant

Sporobolus heterolepis, commonly known as prairie dropseed, is a species of prairie grass native to the tallgrass and mixed grass prairies of central North America from Texas to southern Canada. It is also found further east, to the Atlantic coast of the United States and Canada, but is much less common beyond the Great Plains and is restricted to specialized habitats. It is found in 27 states and four Canadian provinces.

<i>Liatris pycnostachya</i> Species of flowering plant

Liatris pycnostachya, the prairie blazing star, cattail gayfeather or cattail blazing star, is a perennial plant in the Asteraceae family that is native to the tallgrass prairies of the central United States.

<i>Helenium autumnale</i> Species of flowering plant

Helenium autumnale is a North American species of poisonous flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. Common names include common sneezeweed and large-flowered sneezeweed.

<i>Phlox pilosa</i> Species of flowering plant

Phlox pilosa, the downy phlox or prairie phlox, is an herbaceous plant in the family Polemoniaceae. It is native to eastern North America, where it is found in open areas such as prairies and woodlands.

<i>Ratibida columnifera</i> Species of flowering plant

Ratibida columnifera, commonly known as upright prairie coneflower, Mexican hat, and longhead prairie coneflower, is a perennial species of flowering plant in the genus Ratibida in the family Asteraceae. It is native to much of North America and inhabits prairies, plains, roadsides, and disturbed areas from southern Canada through most of the United States to northern Mexico.

<i>Eupatorium altissimum</i> Species of flowering plant

Eupatorium altissimum, with the common names tall thoroughwort and tall boneset, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the Asteraceae family with a native range including much of the eastern and central United States and Canada. It is a tall plant found in open woods, prairies, fields, and waste areas, with white flowers that bloom in the late summer and fall.

<i>Cirsium discolor</i> Species of thistle

Cirsium discolor, the field thistle, is a North American species of plants in the tribe Cardueae within the family Asteraceae. It is native to thirty-three states in the United States as well four Canadian provinces. It occurs across much of eastern and central Canada as well as eastern and central United States. It has been found from New Brunswick west to Saskatchewan and south as far as Texas and Georgia.

<i>Helianthus grosseserratus</i> Species of plant

Helianthus grosseserratus, commonly known as sawtooth sunflower or thick-tooth sunflower, is a perennial sunflower in the family Asteraceae, with a large flowering head (inflorescence).

<i>Silphium perfoliatum</i> Species of flowering plant

Silphium perfoliatum, the cup plant or cup-plant, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native to eastern and central North America. It is an erect herbaceous perennial with triangular toothed leaves, and daisy-like yellow composite flower heads in summer.

<i>Solidago nemoralis</i> Species of plant

Solidago nemoralis is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to North America, where it is widely found in Canada and the United States. Its common names include gray goldenrod, gray-stem goldenrod, old-field goldenrod, field goldenrod, prairie goldenrod, dwarf goldenrod, and dyersweed goldenrod.

<i>Solidago missouriensis</i> Species of flowering plant

Solidago missouriensis is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names Missouri goldenrod and prairie goldenrod. It is native to North America, where it is widespread across much of Canada, the United States, and northern Mexico. It grows from British Columbia east to Manitoba, south as far as Sonora, Coahuila, Texas, and Mississippi.

<i>Vernonia missurica</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae

Vernonia missurica, the Missouri ironweed, is a species of magenta-flowered perennial plant from family Asteraceae native to the central and east central United States.

<i>Silphium terebinthinaceum</i> Species of flowering plant

Silphium terebinthinaceum is a member of the Asteraceae, a family that includes sunflowers, and is commonly referred to as prairie dock or prairie rosinweed. It is native to central and eastern North America. "Rosinweed" became one of the plant's common names due to the fact that upon injury, resin flows from the wound, giving the plant a sweet smell. Tea brewed from the roots of the prairie dock have a variety of medical applications in Native American culture. The smoke from this plant has also been used as a treatment for congestion and rheumatism.

<i>Silphium albiflorum</i> Species of flowering plant

Silphium albiflorum, commonly known as white rosinweed, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to the United States, where it is endemic to the state of Texas. Its natural habitat is in open, calcareous prairies.

<i>Verbesina alternifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Verbesina alternifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is commonly known as wingstem or yellow ironweed. It is native to North America.

Silphium perplexumJ.R.Allison is a prairie species in the Asteraceae endemic to the state of Alabama. S. perplexum is commonly known as Old Cahaba rosinweed, a reference to the Cahaba River near which all populations of this species are found.  

<i>Silphium integrifolium</i> Species of flowering plant

Silphium integrifolium is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. Its common names include rosinweed, whole-leaf rosinweed, entire-leaf rosinweed, prairie rosinweed, and silflower. It is native to eastern North America, including Ontario in Canada and the eastern and central United States as far west as New Mexico.

References

  1. ↑ Silphium laciniatum. NatureServe. 2012.
  2. ↑ USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Silphium laciniatum". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  3. 1 2 "Silphium laciniatum". Germplasm Resources Information Network . Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Zhang, H., et al. (1991). Development of leaf orientation in the prairie compass plant, Silphium laciniatum L. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 118(1) 33-42.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Wynia, R. 2009. Plant Fact Sheet for compassplant (Silphium laciniatum L.). USDA NRCS, Kansas Plant Materials Center, Manhattan, Kansas. 2009.
  6. ↑ Clevinger, Jennifer A. (2006). "Silphium laciniatum". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). Vol. 21. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press – via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
  7. 1 2 3 Silphium laciniatum. Missouri Botanical Garden.
  8. ↑ Jurik, T. W., et al. (1990). Ecophysiological consequences of non-random leaf orientation in the prairie compass plant, Silphium laciniatum. Oecologia 82(2), 180-86.
  9. 1 2 3 Tooker, J. F. and L. M. Hanks. (2004). Endophytic insect communities of two prairie perennials (Asteraceae: Silphium spp.). Biodiversity & Conservation 13(13), 2551–66.
  10. 1 2 Tooker, J. F., et al. (2005). Plant volatiles are behavioral cues for adult females of the gall wasp Antistrophus rufus. Chemoecology 15(2), 85-88.
  11. ↑ Tooker, J. F. and L. M. Hanks. (2006). Tritrophic interactions and reproductive fitness of the prairie perennial Silphium laciniatum Gillette (Asteraceae). Environmental Entomology 35(2), 537-45.
  12. ↑ Tooker, J. F., et al. (2002). Altered host plant volatiles are proxies for sex pheromones in the gall wasp Antistrophus rufus. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 99(24), 15486-91.
  13. 1 2 Silphium laciniatum. Native American Ethnobotany. University of Michigan, Dearborn.
  14. ↑ Alvord, Benjamin (1882). "On the Compass Plant". American Naturalist . 16 (8): 625–635. doi: 10.1086/273143 . JSTOR   2449634.
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