Silphium radula
species of plant
Silphium radula, commonly known as roughstem rosinweed, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native North America, where it is found in the South Central region of the United States. Its natural habitat is prairies over sandy or calcareous soil.
Description
Silphium radula is an herbaceous perennial, growing to around 0.6m tall. It produces large, showy yellow flowers in the summer.
Taxonomy
The taxonomy of the genus Silphium remains unresolved in North America, with the appropriate ranks and relationships between the taxa unclear. Silphium radula appears to be closely related to both Silphium gracile and Silphium integrifolium. Silphium gracile is placed by some authors as a variety of Silphium radula, while other authors treat them as distinct species.
Silphium radula can be distinguished from S. gracile by its shorter peduncles, resulting in its stem leaves often subtending the flower heads (as opposed to flowers being on long naked peduncles as in S. gracile). In addition, S. radula has basal leaves which are absent at flowering time, as opposed to the persistent basal leaves of S. gracile.
“Silphium radula” enters the record as species of plant. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Silphium, radula and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Silphium radula” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Silphium, radula and species provides the most credible route into that argument.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15563567. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
A general summary may omit uncertainty, sample limits or methodological disagreement that is explicit in the technical record. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Silphium radula” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.