COMPOSITE FAMILY COMPOSITAE 
BLACK-EYED SUSAN. YELLOW DAISY 
Rudbeckia hirta L. 
The Black-eyed Susan is exceedingly common in dry or moist — 
open places from Quebec to Manitoba and south to Florida, 
Texas and Colorado. Other names are Brown-eyed Susan, Eng- — 
lish Bull’s Eye, Niggerhead and Yellow © 
Oxeye Daisy. It is very variable and in 
some places is considered a rather trouble- — 
some weed, especially in meadows since — 
cattle do not eat it. The Black-eyed Susan © 
is visited by a great variety of insects and 
probably is a good honey plant. 
It is very hairy throughout. The stem — 
is simple or somewhat branched and 1-3 
feet high. The leaves are thick, toothed or — 
entire; and the lower are petioled, whereas 
the upper are sessile. 
The heads, blooming from May to- 
September, are commonly few and some- 
times there is only 1. The involucre is 
somewhat hemispherical and its very © 
hairy bracts are arranged in 2-4 series. — 
The receptacle is cone shaped and chaffy — 
with concave scales that envelop the per- 
fect disk flowers, whose 5-lobed purple- — 
brown corollas are the source of nearly all 
the common names. Only the disk flowers — 
produce the smooth 4-angled akenes. 
There are 10-20 orange-yellow ray flowers, © 
each notched at the end. The chaff is hairy at the tip and there” 
is no pappus. 
The Brilliant Coneflower, Rudbeckia fulgida Ait., is a branched — 
perennial 1-3 feet high, found in dry soil only in southern counties. ; 
The leaves are entire or toothed; the basal have margined petioles, k 
are oblong-spatulate and 3-nerved, and upper stem leaves are usually 
sessile and somewhat clasping. The naked summits of the branches” 
produce single large heads with 10-12 bright yellow rays that have 
oranges bases. The globose disk is purple-brown and the chaff is 
nearly smooth and blunt. The pappus is a short crown. 
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