Cup Plant, Silphium perfoliatum L., Native Minnesota Wildflower plant, Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden, Indian Cup

	Plants of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden
	Common Name	Scientific Name	Plant Family	Garden Location	Prime Season
	Cup Plant	Silphium perfoliatum L.	Aster (Composite)	Upland	Late Summer
Other names and notes	(Indian Cup). A tall plant, 4 to 8 feet high, with opposite toothed leaves where the upper leaf pairs are joined at the base and thus form a "cup" around the stem, which is square. Yellow flower heads are 2 to 3" wide with 16 to 35 rays; the central disk is 1/2 to 1" wide; there can be several heads in a branched cluster. The stems are square in cross-section and smooth. This is one of four Silphiums in the Garden. The plant has an extensive root system and does not transplant well except when very young. The genus name, Silphium, is from the Greek referring to resinous juice. the species name, perfoliatum, means "through the leaf."


Above: Cup Plant flowers from mid-August. Below left: The unique leaf structure. Below right: Late August seed heads.

Below: The Flower head with bee and beetle	Below: A stand on tall Cup Plants on August 1st.

Notes: Eloise Butler introduced this plant to the Garden with specimens collected at Minnehaha in Sept. 1907; in August 1908 with a plant from Glenwood Springs, (near the Garden); and again in 1911 from plants obtained within Glenwood Park (which surrounded the Garden). This plant was listed on Martha Crone's 1951 inventory of plants in the Garden at that time. It is native to Minnesota in most counties across the southern part of the state south of the Minnesota River, the SE and north as far as the metro area but generally absent westward of the metro counties. It can become weedy and invasive in certain areas. Connecticut has banned the plant but is not controlled in Minnesota. Cup Plant is only one of Silphiums that is mentioned in literature for medicinal usage. As the root contains a gum and resin, the root has been medicinally used as a tonic, diaphoretic (stimulates perspiration) and diuretic. Densmore listed usage by the Chippewa for lung ailments, hemorrhage and joint pain. Others that briefly list use and dosage are Grieve and Hutchins. For more detail on this plant and the other Silphiums, see the article "The Four Silphiums".

Eloise Butler wrote of this plant: "Another composite adorned with yellow ray petals and towering in splendor above its competitors in rich, alluvial soil, is the Cup Plant. The large leaves, arranged in pairs along the stem, are united at the base to form a deep cup for holding water. This may serve the double purpose of tiding the plant over a dry spell and of keeping unwelcome, crawling insects from the flowers. People in the tropics use a similar means to keep the ants from food by inserting the legs of the dining tables in dishes of water." Published in the Minneapolis Sunday Tribune, July 16, 1911

Return to -- Site Plan/Archive --or-- List of Common Plant Names -- or -- List of Scientific Names -- or --Home Page

References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.

041811