Cup Plant (Silphium perfoliatum)

Oh hell yes—brace yourself, because here comes Cup Plant (Silphium perfoliatum), the towering, water-hoarding, bird-bar-owning giant of the prairie that makes your thirsty little daylilies look like dehydrated posers.

This beast doesn’t just grow—it ascends, like some leafy green skyscraper powered by ancestral rage and midwestern humidity. The leaves fuse around the square stem like Mother Nature got tired of your dumb little birdbath and said, “Here, I made one out of raw power.” Rain collects in those leaf cups like it’s being poured from a divine watering can—a literal loving cup, if you're into Phish (and yes, we know it’s a Stones tune, calm down, nerds). Birds? Bugs? Bees? They come to drink from it like it’s the holy grail at the end of an acid trip.

Cup Plant doesn’t stop at being tall—it goes full mythical, blasting out big yellow flowers like it’s launching solar flares in July, all while flipping a leafy double-bird to your boxwood hedge. It’ll anchor your yard like a totem of defiance, all while holding water, feeding pollinators, and probably whispering ancient prairie secrets to your tomatoes.

So if you want a plant that’s part wildflower, part rain collector, part psychedelic prairie shaman,
plant this monster and raise your own loving cup to the ecosystem.

🌼🌿💧
Cup Plant:
Hold water. Grow tall. Rock on.