Black-eyed Susan

Rudbeckia hirta

rud-BEK-ee-ah HER-tah · pronunciation [1]

Golden rays, a dark central cone, and bristly foliage: a familiar wildflower with a surprising range of colors.

DSCN1956 · A clear view of the yellow rays and dark disk. Tap the photo to enlarge.

NATIVE • PRAIRIE & OPEN GROUND

At a glance

Family Asteraceae · aster family
Life cycle Annual, biennial, or short-lived perennial
Blooms Summer into fall; timing varies by region
Habitat Prairies, meadows, fields & roadsides [3]

Other common names
Hairy Coneflower · Brown Betty · Yellow Ox-eye Daisy · Gloriosa Daisy.

Gloriosa Daisy is especially familiar as a name for garden forms. Explore the bicolored photographs below.

Range Map

Open the range map to explore photographed sightings and their locations.

How to recognize it

Follow three field clues

01 · Dark raised center
Yellow ray florets surround a brown to purplish, domed disk.

02 · Bristly stems and leaves
Look for conspicuous stiff hairs.

03 · Alternate, unlobed leaves
Lower leaves usually have stalks; upper leaves often attach without a stalk. [3]

Where and when to look

Search sunny prairies, meadows, old fields, and roadsides. Plants vary in height and may have one or several flower heads. [3]

Summer is a useful search window in the Upper Midwest; flowering can continue into fall. Plants often reseed, so a patch may shift from year to year. [2]

Compare the whole plant

Orange Coneflower (R. fulgida) is usually a longer-lived, spreading perennial with less hairy foliage. Brown-eyed Susan (R. triloba) commonly has more branching and smaller heads. Check leaves, hairs, and growth habit along with flower color. [2]

A closer look

A flower made of flowers

The showy head is a cluster of tiny flowers: rays around the edge and disk florets in the center. The dark cone changes as its florets mature. [1]

A meal for insects and birds

Flower visitors include bees and butterflies. The foliage can feed Silvery Checkerspot and Wavy-lined Emerald caterpillars; American Goldfinches eat the seeds. [1]

Leave some mature seed heads standing to keep that food available.

Hairy by name

The Latin epithet hirta means “hairy”—a reminder to examine the stems and leaves, not just the flower. [1]

Plants can be annual, biennial, or short-lived perennial. A returning patch can include new seedlings. [3]

Gloriosa Daisy & bicolored forms

Garden forms with a genetic history

What is a Gloriosa Daisy?
The name is used for cultivated forms of Rudbeckia hirta, with a range of colors and flower shapes. “Cultivated form” or “cultivar” is the clearest everyday description. [3]

Classic Gloriosa Daisies include tetraploid forms: plants with four sets of chromosomes. That genetic change is called polyploidy. It is more precise than describing every colorful flower as one mutation. [3] [4]

About these photographs
DSCN4850, DSCN7761, and DSCN7776 show bicolored flowers with a Gloriosa Daisy appearance. A photograph cannot establish a named cultivar, its breeding origin, or its chromosome count, so their cultivar identity remains unconfirmed.