Cup Plant (Silphium perfoliatum)

There are a variety of sunflower-type plants that bloom wild here.  The cup plant can be distinguished from the rest by the formation of it's leaves into a cup around the stalk.  It's not a great year for them this year, though not really a bad year either.  They are only 4 feet tall as opposed to the 7 feet they reached last year.  This was a wonderful year for catnip.  It  positively blossomed into large happy colonies.   Some years are better for a certain species than others - a combination of the number of new plants, when it rains, type of soil, temperature, bugs, etc.  I still remember the scary Year-of-the-Bur-Cucumber.  It seemed if I stood still too long on the trail I'd have a tendril of it trying to wrap around my ankle.