17 Comments

Wow! 100 years?? How beautiful— thank you for this, Diane. Im a Des Moines transplant, deeply enjoying exploring this ecosystem. 🌻

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Feb 5Liked by Diane Porter

Amazing plant !!

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Feb 5Liked by Diane Porter

I live in northern Alberta so it seems not.

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Feb 4Liked by Diane Porter

Wow !! What a story.

I will look for them now.

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Instead of the stars, the flowers!

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They’re out at Lamson! Thank you Diane, just love this. The pioneers traveling the prairie seas with the help of this beautiful plant.

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Aug 2, 2023Liked by Diane Porter

Thank you for writing about this Silphium--one of my favorite native plants! I love that the people going West used it as a directional tool. I’m sharing your article on the Wild Ones River City Facebook page.

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Diane, thank you for this recognition of a plant that's hard to find, at least in our area. We've lived in the TX Hill Country for 30 years. and have seen only one, a white one. Maybe 24"-30" tall, it grew in the ditch along our gravel road for at least 18 years--an isolate, not part of a colony. I took the first photo of it in 2005 and have taken several others since, remarking on its persistence. Unfortunately, a neighbor scraped out the ditch with his tractor blade last year. The plant didn't reappear this year, but I remember it--sadly--every time I drive past its spot.

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