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Re: Silphium laciniatum

>I'm in Dallas, TX.
>We had a rainy end to our winter, and drought since then.
>I have  a patch of S.lac. about 50 x 50 ft; it has been growing well every
>year from seed planted 14 years ago.  This year it all turned brown about
>April, and never formed flowering heads.
>Another patch a mile away failed the same way.
>And the many stands on our primeval unplowed prairies at Penn Prairie did
>the same.
>
>Any ideas, explanations, suggestions?  How have yours fared?
>
>Envirocordially yours    Geoff
>
>
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Geoff,

In one of JE Weavers books "Prairie Plants and the Environment", he
describes the effects of the drought of the mid 1930s and how many prairie
plants went dormant after several years of drought.  After rains returned
in the late 1930s they started to grow again.  This might be the case with
your plants, only time will tell.

Regarding another comment on the Silphium laciniatum and the transplanting
of root stalks.  I dug up some plants about 20 years ago from an abandoned
rail road right-of-way (it was scheduled to be farmed immediately) and
ended up with only 5 or 6 inches of tap root.  I planted them immediately
and they put up new leaves in a couple of weeks and are still alive and
flowering each year.  Where I planted them in an already established
prairie communty they did not flower for 10 to 12 years.  In most
plantings, when they are planted from seed they flower in 4 to 6 years.
Keep in mind we have deep rich soil here in central Iowa and an average
rainfall of 35 inches, most of which is in the growing season
(April-October).

It has been a great year for compass-plants here with excellent seed
production.  It appears that extrememly wet years stop flowering almost
100%.


Carl Kurtz
515-477-8364
cpkurtz@netins.net 


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