Compass plant
Silphium laciniatum L.
- light
- Full sun
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 2.3 m
- wide
- 76 cm
Asteraceae
Also called Robinson's Compass Plant, Compassplant
Formerly Silphium gummiferum, Silphium spicatum
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- PerennialKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- TemperateKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- SE. Canada to C. & E. U.S.A.Kew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun (6 h or more)Read from Plant Lust and Fine Gardening, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources. Sources differ: Plant Lust full; Fine Gardening full, part
- Height
- 1.5 m to 3.0 mRead from Plant Lust, Fine Gardening and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by 2 of 3 sources. Sources differ: Plant Lust 5–10 ft; Fine Gardening 6–10 ft; Wikipedia 1–3 m
- Spread
- 61 cm to 91 cmRead from Plant Lust and Fine Gardening, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources. Sources differ: Plant Lust 2–4 ft; Fine Gardening 1–3 ft
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from Plant Lust and Fine Gardening, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources
- Flowers
- YellowRead from Plant Lust, Fine Gardening and Wikipedia, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by all 3 sources
- Coldest it survives
- -31.6 °C (USDA zone 4b)Read from Plant Lust and Fine Gardening, checked: the middle of what its sources sayHalfway between its 2 sources, which differ. Sources differ: Plant Lust -34.4 °C; Fine Gardening -28.9 °C
Not known yet: heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (7)
- Swedish
- kompassört
- Chinese
- 羅盤草
- root
- jáłíchii
- Polish
- rożnik strzępolistny
- French
- Plante boussole, Silphe lacinié
- Finnish
- liuskakompassikukka
- Chinese (China)
- 条裂松香草
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-26, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- Plant Lust, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Fine Gardening, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikipedia, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-26, CC BY-SA
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-26, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-26, CC BY-SA
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-26, CC BY
- 3D model: Silphium laciniatum (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.