Get your Bearings : Compass Plant |
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Get your Bearings : Compass Plant
Reiman’s Pick
For the week of July 12, 2010
Pete Segebart, Outdoor Horticulture Intern
Reiman Gardens, Iowa State University
When early settlers came across the Midwest’s central plains, it was a struggle to travel through virgin prairies. Getting lost in the tall-grass prairies was a mistake easily made with grasses towering above the highest bow of a wagon.. To get their bearings, some say the compass plant was very useful at pointing pioneers to their destinations. The large and deeply lobed leaves at the base of the compass plant almost always point in a north-south direction.
Today, though aided by maps and GPS systems, spotting a compass plant is still just as exciting. You need a sense of direction, but it’s easy to see how it could accurately guide travelers through the grassy jungles of the tall-grass prairie.
Topped with large, yellow, daisy-like flowers, at heights ranging from six to twelve feet, the compass plant (Silphium laciniatum) is very easy to identify in the landscape. Its robust, course-textured leaves can reach lengths of over two-feet long. Its pale, green color is derived from small, white hairs that also offer a natural cooling effect to the leaves. Compass plants are hardy in USDA zones 3 through 9 and have a deep root system. Amazingly, compass plant can live up to 100 years and from mid-July to September will bloom.
Compass plant can be used in your garden to give it a somewhat wild character, plus the roots assist with storm water management. Its roots are so deep, water will easily percolate into the soil rather than flow down to a storm drain. Compass plant performs best in full sun with moist to slightly dry, soils.
The native compass plant’s bold appearance and symbolism of landscape history makes it a great addition to a Midwest garden. This plant can be found standing tall throughout the Stafford Garden with its leaves proudly spreading north and south.
Jul 12, 2010 8:30 AM
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