Forum:

plants

Cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum)

posted 5 months ago

9
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

I was eating some cup plant seeds today. Cup plant is a lovely, hardy, sunflower-like perennial, with edible leaves but few mention that the seeds are edible too. They taste, more or less, like sunflower seeds. And they look like them too, if a little flatter and wider. Of course, the number per head is much, much less, in addition to the per-square-meter yield. But I thought I would bring them up as a possibility for perennial sunflower alternatives.

And, of course, they are beautiful plants!

IMG_1203.jpeg

COMMENTS:

M Ljin

master gardener

Posts: 1922

Location: Zone 5

1043

I like...

posted 5 months ago

9
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

The flower buds are also an excellent vegetable. They get big and aren’t tough. Should I compare them to sunflowery-tasting brussels sprouts?

One can never be too kind to oneself or others.

PEP - BB5 Badge (verified skill)
Skill verified by gir bot

Anne Miller

steward

Posts: 18467

Location: USDA Zone 8a

4688

I like...

posted 5 months ago

6
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

Silphium perfoliatum is considered a potential energy crop plant, especially because it has low demands on the climate, the soil and previous crop and produces high amounts of biomass.

I believe we call this plant Compass plants. Pretty yellow flowers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silphium_perfoliatum

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

Judith Browning

Posts: 10093

Location: a temperate, clay/loam spot on planet earth, the universe

3293

posted 5 months ago

5
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

I know this plant!
I did not know it's edibility though.
It grows along a gravel road we like to walk during the summer.
Now I want to get over there to see if it's gone to seed yet!

A lot of our summer walks are along the same paths so we watch things green up, bloom and go to seed...this was one that stood out as it gets large and kind of bushy.

thanks for posting about it😊

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

Martin Mikulcik

Posts: 57

Location: Missouri

posted 2 months ago

1
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

I just found out this was edible, always thought they looked toxic.

Have you tried the sap?
What about feeding it to rabbits or other livestock?

Martin
Flyoverseeds.com

Les Frijo

Posts: 254

posted 2 months ago

7
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

That's really neat that the seeds are pretty much the same size as regular sunflower seeds. I wonder if I can get any before the birds get them all next year.

We have a different related one we call compass plant. It doesn't get the same opposite leaves that form cups along the stems but cool plants for flower and leaf orientation. I wonder if the seeds are similar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silphium_laciniatum

silphium-perfoliatum-cup-plant-e1566039863977-768x1024.jpg

Compass-plant-Silphium-laciniatum-scaled.jpg

FFS

William Bronson

gardener

Posts: 5577

Location: Cincinnati, Ohio,Price Hill 45205

1205

I like...

posted 2 months ago

8
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

Here's a nice first hand account on using this plant,complete with nice photographs:
https://foragerchef.com/silphium-cup-plant/

Silphium-perfoliatum-13-768x548.jpg

Eating Bindweed
Eating Buckwheat Greens
Paul explains why I spend time here,better than I could myself.

Megan Palmer

gardener

Posts: 1690

Location: Zone 9A, 45S 168E, 329m Queenstown, NZ

896

I like...

posted 2 months ago

5
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

William Bronson wrote:Here's a nice first hand account on using this plant,complete with nice photographs:
https://foragerchef.com/silphium-cup-plant/

Thanks for the link William, what a fantastic resource.

I have come across his wild game recipes before but never bothered to explore the site or read his profile.

What an inspiring young man, his love and knowledge of fungi is exceptional.

I have the recipe book by Antonio Carluccio - A Passion for Mushrooms and not seen anything as comprehensive in terms of a field guide specifically for edible mushrooms and I own many fungi field guides!

a wee bit from the empire

Our PIE page has been updated, anybody wanna test?

https://permies.com/t/369340/PIE-page-updated-wanna-test