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Silphium laciniatum
Also called Compass Plant, Pilot Weed, Polarplant, Rosinweed, Pilotweed
Silphium laciniatum is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known commonly as compassplant 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. Other common names include prairie compass plant, pilotweed, polarplant, gum weed, cut-leaf silphium, and turpentine plant. It is a rosinweed of genus Silphium.
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. 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. Over 600 galls can be in a single stem. The galls are internal in this species, and generally not visible. 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. The male A. rufus also uses the volatiles in his search for mates.
The plant had a variety of uses among Native American groups. The bitter, resinous sap could be made into a chewing gum. The Pawnee made a tisane ( herbal tea) with it. Many groups burned the dried root as a charm during lightning.
White rosinweed · Starry rosinweed · Cumberland rosinweed · Kidneyleaf rosinweed · Wholeleaf rosinweed · Mohr's rosinweed · Cup plant · Old Cahaba rosinweed · Tansy rosinweed · Roughstem rosinweed · Prairie rosinweed · Whorled rosinweed
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Silphium laciniatum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
