Prairie Plant of the week - Siphium laciniatum (Compass Plant)

Siphium laciniatum (Compass Plant)

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view) 

This week's prairie plant features the Compass Plant; this plant is fairly iconic on the tallgrass prairie - a large plant, usually towering above me as I walk through the mid to late summer prairie.  The birds love their seeds and this plant provides a solid platform for many bird nests as well.

I first spread seed for this plant in our first year here at the acreage and five years later we had flowering stalks 5-8 feet high!  It was well worth the wait I'd say, but I'd recommend only seeding for 2-3 years (maybe less) and then wait for the plants to establish, otherwise you'll have stands too thick to navigate!

Siphium laciniatum (Compass Plant)

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view)

The leaves on Compass Plants are very distinct and quite large and handsome.  The plant gets it's common name from the leaves tending to orient themselves in a general north-south direction...they are very large, a foot or more in length and half a foot or more wide...very thick and substantial to say the least!

The yellow flowers are 3-4 inches wide and are alternate up the plant's heavy/thick stem.  They attract a great variety of pollinators too!

The Compass Plant's leaves and roots was used by several first nation tribes for many different uses...in the book "Wildflowers of the Tallgrass Prairie" by Roosa and Runkel, it is even mentioned that burning a dried root during a lightning storm acted as a charm to ward off lightning strikes...or hopefully so!

It was also said that when in bloom, a gummy material forms along the upper 3rd of the main stem.  This resinous material was used by Native Americans as a chewing gum.

Siphium laciniatum (Compass Plant)

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view)

This is one plant that deer really seem to like in the early summer stage of growth but avoid later on when it gains height...I don't know how good of a forage it may have been to pioneers first settling the prairies but the Roosa/Runkel book says it was liked by cattle as well; likely being a reason it was pretty much eliminated wherever cattle were grazed year after year...I personally have found that cattle are very hard on native forbs, many will not sustain heavy grazing pressure like that year after year.

Next time you're out on the prairie, walk up next to a Compass plant and see how it measures up!  They're pretty cool in my book!




 

Looking Forward To It!

Compass Plant and the Prairie Hill Farm Prairie Hillside

I'm almost giddy...it's starts tomorrow! Officially anyway; tomorrow is the first day of Spring!

We woke up to a fresh covering of snow here at Prairie Hill Farm. The Robins are not happy but are doing their thing, strutting and pecking wherever they can. A little snow is no big thing now...even a lot of snow would be no big deal either, because It's almost spring! Whatever falls today or tomorrow will be gone in a couple days or so.

The sky was actually blue this Wednesday and Thursday! It was so nice to not be fogged in...a person's soul needs blue skies. Simple as that.

We're looking forward to the greening and flowering of the landscape here...the prairie is wonderful when spring comes, and even more so through the summer!

I went out and help Georgie a little in the yard yesterday...just could not stay in the studio. I pruned wild plums around the buildings while Georgie pruned the raspberry canes. During the afternoon the sky was full of many, many flocks of Snow Geese and Canada Geese heading north. Music to the ears.

Birds of the yard were singing as well...Robins, Chickadees, Nuthatches, and the many Red-winged Blackbirds and newly arrived Killdeers.

It's Spring tomorrow...did I mention that??!

June! Where Ya Goin'?!

Daisy Fleabane

How's it happen? Is it just me?! June finally came and now it's about gone! Well, we have till next Tuesday but it still looms as a past deed about to be retrospect.

I'm finally rapping up a long job here and am hoping for some real prairie time and even easel time (!) fairly soon. Meanwhile everything has no regard for my absence and continues full steam ahead.

The prairie remnant pasture here is a good example...during this week we've had more plants come into bloom...just to name a few there's the almost weedy Daisy Fleabane shown at the top of this blog. It's not a particularly attractive plant but the blooms are quaint and from a distance they bring an air of fun.

Butterfly Milkweed

A real favorite, the Butterfly Milkweed is just now blooming here...it is a drop dead gorgeous bloom...unlike other milkweeds, this Asclepias does not have a milky discharge if broken...the Monarch caterpillars love to eat the seed pods on this plant, almost preferring them over leaves.

Pale Penstemon

Our smaller Penstemon, Pale Penstemon is in bloom now, just coming on after it's larger brethren has finished out (the Large-flowered Beardtongue). I like the tubular flowers and so do the Hummingbirds and the Bumble Bees.

"July Afternoon, Compass Plant"
oil on mounted canvas

And now summer must really be here as the Compass Plants have just begun their colors...we waited 5 years for our first bloomers here a couple years back; there's more each year now. This was a small oil painting I did of a Compass Plant last year...ya the title won't fit for a week yet but they bloom through July.

I wanted to mention an event this weekend near here if you have either Saturday or Sunday free. The nature center at Lost Island in Palo Alto County is having a "bioblitz"! The public is welcome and encouraged to participate.

It's a 24 Hour Snapshot/Inventory of Animals & Plants and the public is invited to join scientists as they survey over 7,000 acres of prairie, wetland, lake and timber. Teams will inventory mammals, birds, insects, fish, prairie & wetland plants. Fun stuff!!

I volunteered to help out so am looking forward to it.

You can join us for all or part of this event - it starts at noon on Saturday and goes through Sunday. Register by calling 712-837-4866.

Keep cool out there!