July 4 Inside the Compass

I stopped while walking through the prairie today to peer deep inside a compass plant flower. Silphium laciniatum typically grows to 7 feet tall, which this one has already achieved. The basal leaves are gigantic, at least a foot long, and have deep cuts between long lobes. Basal and midstem leaves are coarse like sandpaper, and tend to orient themselves vertically in a north-south direction, which helps them avoid the heat of the midday sun. Story goes that this is why the European conquerors named it compass plant. I looked at several compass leaves and saw that today they are oriented every which way, but the majority are standing almost straight up, not intending to capture full sun any longer. Today's bright sun illuminated the flower disk with all of those five-pointed disk florets with the windy stigmas reaching out for pollination.