Seeds

Spent flower heads of Compass Plant (Silphium laciniatum). 

Autumn is a time of gathering in...

Gathering in the final crops of the season... sweet potatoes, winter squash, winter radishes, cabbages (if you were fortunate enough to have a fall crop of cabbages... mine failed), and seeds. 

The spent flower heads above have dried, bearing mature seeds. Today I collected the last of them, which I will share with a couple of native plant enthusiasts.

The compass plant that bore the seeds is somewhat precious to me. Several years ago I found compass plant, which typically grows in open prairies, growing among a grove of red cedars. I was told that the presence of compass plant could indicate that an area is unplowed native prairie. This intrigued me. Beneath those trees lay an unplowed prairie that might spring back to life if the trees were gone.

Well, I wasn't going to cut down all those trees... but what if I tried digging up one of the compass plants?

I consider compass plants to be quite majestic. Their basal leaves look like large ferns. The flower stalks can get very tall. The stalk bearing the above immature seed heads was at least seven feet. The flowers look somewhat like small sunflowers rising above the prairie grasses. 

I have always been enamored of compass plant, which seems kind of rare.

The name "compass plant" comes from the tendency for the basal leaves (the leaves growing from the base of the plant) to align their edges north and south. Some indigenous people believed that lightning struck frequently where compass plant grew, so they would not camp in those areas. They also then burned roots of the plant to ward off lighting during storms. 

I wouldn't want to burn the roots of this precious plant no matter how vicious the lightning.

The roots grow very deep, which is why the plants survived to live among the cedars. I knew that digging up large tap roots to transplant can be chancy, with no guarantee of a new plant.

So I went out with my shovel in late winter/early spring to dig one plant.

I was ecstatic when I saw the first new leaves later that year. 

It took a few years for the plant to get as large as it is today, but it is a beauty. Starting it from seed will be a new project for me. Many native wildflowers require "stratification" (freeze and thaw) to germinate, so I will start them as a "winter sowing" project. I wrote about winter sowing as part of a post nine years ago. I also found a site that gives a good step-by-step for winter sowing, but focuses on garden vegetables instead of wildflowers. I've never tried it with veggies, but have had success with wildflowers. Winter sowing is a great activity for the Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas season.

Seeds of native plants also make great gifts for any native plant enthusiast, by the way. Vegetable and herb gardeners also might enjoy receiving seeds of new or unusual varieties. Get your holiday gift buying done early!