Photos: Cup Plants in Wildwood Park

Posted August 14, 2012

Photo by Nancy Kent

Nancy Kent shares these photos and writes:

“Cup Plants are now in full flower in Wildwood Park and are lighting up a meadow beside the creek with a burst of yellow. A photo cannot do justice to these eight-foot beauties – you need to see them for yourself!

The are visited often by a variety of insects including Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies, both the yellow form and the female black form.

BTW – Cup Plants (Silphium perfoliatum) have an interesting leaf structure. The leaves are opposite each other on the stem which comes up through them (perfoliates them) and forms a ‘cup’ that will even hold water.”