Akademik

1. North American annual with red or rose-colored flowers

2. any of several plants having leaves so arranged on the axis as to indicate the cardinal points of the compass

a. : a rosinweed (Silphium laciniatum)

b. : a prickly lettuce (Lactuca scariola)

c. : prairie bird's-foot trefoil

d. : a low tufted white-woolly yellow-flowered composite herb (Wyethia ovata) of California

any of various plants having leaves that tend to lie in a plane at right angles to the strongest light, hence usually north and south, esp. Silphium laciniatum.

[1840-50]

compass plant noun

Any plant (such as Silphium laciniatum and certain species of lettuce) that aligns its leaves north and south to avoid the midday sun

Main Entry: ↑compass

compass plant,

any one of various plants whose alternate branches or leaves tend to point north and south, as the rosinweed and pilotweed.