{"title":"Silphium","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1753, the famous taxonomist Carl Linnaeus was looking for a new name for a native North American plant genus he was studying. He decided to name this group, \"Silphium\" after a legendary, ancient, and now extinct Greek plant of the same name. He did so because the new silphium and the legendary plant both produced a resinous goo from the stalk which was used by native cultures both as a culinary spice and as a medicine.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe modern genus Silphium consists of 13 species of American native plants in the Aster family (Asteraceae) and are closely related to other garden perennials such as \u003ca title=\"berlandiera\" href=\"\/collections\/berlandiera\"\u003eberlandiera\u003c\/a\u003e, \u003ca title=\"engelmannia\" href=\"\/collections\/engelmannia\"\u003eengelmannia\u003c\/a\u003e, vigethia, \u003ca title=\"chrysogonum\" href=\"\/collections\/chrysogonum\"\u003echrysogonum\u003c\/a\u003e, and \u003ca title=\"helianthus\" href=\"\/collections\/helianthus\"\u003ehelianthus\u003c\/a\u003e. The American silphium species are large flowering perennials that grow in moist areas across the eastern US from Texas north into Canada. Silphium is a valuable summer perennial because it is both tough and attractive. Silphium species are drought-tolerant, do well in poor clay soils, and tolerate heat and humidity. The members of this genus produce pretty, yellow, daisy-like flowers and large, attractive, lobed leaves during the dog days of summer when other plants have faded.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe young leaves were eaten raw in salads or cooked like spinach. Silphium flowers are produced over a long period during summer and are popular with bees for making honey.\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eIts namesake, the legendary Greek silphium plant, is totally unrelated to the modern silphium and was a carrot relative in the genus ferula that grew in a small region of North Africa. This plant, whose resin was sometimes called silphion, was valued so highly by the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Minoans that they stamped their coins with depictions of silphium...so it was literally worth its weight in silver. The resin was an important aromatic culinary spice for sauces and sheep were encouraged to graze upon the plant because the resin made their meat amazingly tasty. The plants small native distribution and inability to be domesticated ultimately lead to its overharvesting and extinction. When you are ready to buy silphium (the native American kind) for your summer garden, check out our online list of silphium for sale.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"silphium-terebinthinaceum-bain-relief","title":"Silphium terebinthinaceum Bain Relief","description":"\u003cp\u003eSilphium 'Bain Relief' is a 2026 Plant Delights\/JLBG introduction of a 2013 Zac Hill collection from Bain's Gap in Calhoun County, Alabama. With a native range from northern Wisconsin to central Alabama, this collection of prairie rosinweed is from the far southern end of its natural range. These genetics produce a bold-textured plant that's 3' tall x 6' wide, composed of sandpaper-textured green leaves that measure 15\" long x 8\" wide. The clumps are topped with 7' tall branched spikes of yellow daisies in mid-summer.\u003c\/p\u003e ","brand":"Plant Delights Nursery","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42450479906903,"sku":"17656","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1527\/8799\/files\/Silphium-terebinthinaceum-Bain-Relief.i-17656.s-68357.r-1.jpg?v=1790368646"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1527\/8799\/collections\/Silphium-banner-image-2016.jpg?v=1664223376","url":"https:\/\/www.plantdelights.sbs\/collections\/silphium.oembed","provider":"Plant Delights Nursery","version":"1.0","type":"link"}