Cup Plant

Cup Plant is one of the tallest plants of the prairie. The flowering stem grows blooms with one or several yellow composite sunflower-like flowers. Leaves are large, broad, and have a rough texture.
 

Leaves hug the stem in such a way that they create a space where water can collect like in a cup, giving the plant its common name. Often it supplies water to various insects or birds.

Young cup plant before blooming with compass plant flower in the back (Meadowbrook Park, Urbana, IL)

Cup plant detail: leaves form a cup around the base often with collected water (Meadowbrook Park, Urbana, IL)

Blooming cup plant (Lake of the Woods, Mahomet, IL)

It's one of the four plants sometimes grouped as resin weeds (or, rosinweeds): Compass Plant, Cup Plant, Prairie Dock, and Rosinweed.

Scientific Name: Silphium perfoliatum