Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

SWEET CONEFLOWER

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Rudbeckia subtomentosa Pursh

Douglas County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 40-80 inches

Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family

Flowering Period: July, August, September

Stems:

Erect, usually branched above, densely hirsute above, not glaucous.

Leaves:

Basal and cauline, alternate; blade ovate to elliptic, 1.2 to 12 inches long, .4 to 6 inches wide, base truncate to cuneate, margins usually 3-5-lobed, ultimate margins coarsely toothed, tip obtuse to acute or acuminate, surfaces densely hirsute, not glaucous.

Inflorescences:

Heads 8-25, radiate, solitary or in corymb-like or panicle-like arrays.

Flowers:

Phyllaries 15-23, lanceolate to linear, .2 to .6 inch. Receptacles hemispheric to broadly ovoid. Ray florets 12-21, neuter; corolla yellow, ligule spreading, .8 to 1.6 inch long, .2 to .3 inch wide. Disk florets 200-400, bisexual, fertile; corolla brownish purple, .12 to .16 inch, tubular, lobes 5.

Fruits:

Achenes black, obpyramidal, 4-angled, glabrous, .1 to .14 inch; pappus of minute teeth.

Habitat:

Mesic tallgrass prairies and ravines, moist thickets and pastures, river and stream banks, ditches.

Distribution:

East 1/5 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Comments:

Rudbeckia, for Olaus Johannes Rudbeck and his son Olaus Olai Rudbeck, Swedish botanists, and subtomentosa, slightly woolly, alluding to the downy hairs on the stems and under surfaces of the leaves. Rudbeckia subtomentosa occurs in drainage areas where moisture is available near the surface.

Sweet coneflower heads