Compass Plant and more Wildflower ID!

I had a VERY good day today for wildflower ID. I haven't actually left my house, but I started working on my backlog of photos from previous excursions. Some of the photos I had forgotten about (I hadn't even transferred them from my camera to computer yet), but once I took a look I had great luck matching them up. Starting with Compass Plant:

Silphium laciniatum

I took this photo a few weeks ago while biking on our road. My friend Tracy, an expert who I often consult with on plant ID, told me about Compass Plant when I first started, but I didn't make the connection at all. But there it was all along. It gets its name from the fact that it tends to grow it's foliage on the North-South sides to minimize exposure to the high noon sun.

Tracy also helped me to ID Butterfly Milkweed, seen at Ledges State Park:

Asclepias tuberosa. (The yellow behind it is Partridge Pea!)

I also added these from a walk in the prairie area of Botna Bend park:

Grayhead Coneflower, Ratibida pinnata

Culver's Root, Veronicastrum virginicum

Oxeye Sunflower, Heliopsis helianthoides

Some of the guides I use are available for free to Iowa residents (one per household) from the Iowa Department of Transportation. You can request free copies from Iowa's Living Roadway Trust Fund.

Iowa's Living Roadway Plant Profiler is a spiral bound book that features native flowers, grasses, trees, and shrubs. I used it today to ID or find information on all five of the flowers I posted today. You can request a copy or find a free PDF version here.

I have also gotten a lot of use out of the "Jewels of the Prairie" posters. They are beautifully illustrated posters. The complete set can be requested here (the link towards the top that says "contact us").

The same page shows several other books and resources that can be requested or found in PDF form.