Types of Silphium by Kind

Choose Silphium by leaf and manners: cup plant, compass plant, prairie dock, or wholeleaf rosinweed. We list four kinds.

Choose cup plant, compass plant, prairie dock, or wholeleaf rosinweed

Read the leaves. The four we list are S. perfoliatum, S. laciniatum, S. terebinthinaceum, and S. integrifolium. [1] Culture is the same full sun and a permanent taproot. Height and manners are the choice. [2]

Browse by kind

Cup plant

S. perfoliatum joins opposite leaves around a square stem so rain sits in a cup. It seeds and can thicken in moist rich ground — pick it only where that vigour is welcome.

Compass plant

S. laciniatum carries deeply cut basal leaves that often stand north–south. One deep taproot stands at the back of a prairie strip.

Prairie dock

S. terebinthinaceum puts huge unlobed basal leaves on the ground and sends a tall, mostly leafless stalk up in late summer. Commit the footprint.

Wholeleaf rosinweed

S. integrifolium keeps entire opposite leaves on the stem and stays somewhat shorter than cup plant or compass plant. Same sun, less height.

All four share sandpaper leaves and yellow daisy heads. Pick cup plant only where seed rain is welcome; pick compass or dock when one deep-rooted specimen sits at the back of the meadow. [3]

Not the ancient herb named Silphium

The prairie daisy genus took a Greek name that once meant a resin plant from northern Africa, now extinct as a crop. A search that asks whether Silphium still grows, or what can replace it, is that herb — not cup plant. [4]

If the tag says Helianthus or Heliopsis, that is a different daisy. Confirm Silphium before you plant.

If the tag says sunflower or the ancient herb, that is not this prairie daisy — read the Latin before you plant.