The flowers are in flat-topped clusters; each head is composed of many pearly-white, dry, overlapping scales that surround brownish-yellow, tubular florets. Staminate and pistillate flowers grow on different plants. This Everlasting is very common on dry hillsides, in woods, or on recently cleared land. Its range extends from N. S. to Manitoba and southward to S. C. and Mo. It is in full bloom from July until September.
(B) Sweet Everlasting (Gnaphalium polycephalum) has a wooly stem and wavy, lanceolate, wooly leaves. The pearly flower-heads are oval in shape; they do not expand until after they have matured. It is common in pastures everywhere.
(B) Rosin-weed; Compass Plant (Silphium laciniatum) is a large, showy-flowered plant found on the western prairies. It has a stout, rough, bristly stem that attains heights of from 3 to 10 feet. The stem grows from a perennial root. The large leaves are pinnately divided, each division being linear and cut-lobed.
The flower-heads are very large, measuring from 2 to 4 inches across. They are sessile or exceedingly short stemmed, seated along the upper portion of the stout stem. They are disposed to present their edges north and south. Compass Plant is found on prairies from Mich. to North Dakota and southward; it blooms from July until September.
(A) Prairie Dock (Silphium terbinthinaceum pinnatifidium) is rather an attractive plant that also grows on prairies and the edges of copses. The smooth, slender stem ascends 3 to 10 feet high and bears a loose panicle of large, yellow-rayed flower-heads. The leaves mostly come from the root and lower part of the stem; they are slender-petioled and deeply pinnatifid. Found from O. to Minn. and southward.
Elecampane (Inula Helenium) (European) is a tall, stout, beautiful member of the composite family that comes to us from the Old World.
The stout, smooth, usually unbranched stalk grows from 2 to 6 feet in height and is leafy throughout. At the summit of the stem is a single (or sometimes two) large flower set on a peduncle from the angle of the upper leaf. A smaller, flat, bract-like leaf appears just below the flower involucre. The head measures 2 or 3 inches across and has a broad disc of tubular, yellow florets, these turning tan color as they age. The yellow rays are numerous, but very narrow, usually set at different angles and with some vacant places so that the flower has a rather disheveled appearance.
The upper leaves usually clasp the plant stem, while the lower ones are on petioles. They are broad, thick-textured, toothed and pointed; the large, whitish veins show very prominently; the upper surface of the leaf is rough, yellowish green, while the lower is lighter and wooly.