W163 



NIGGERHEAD 



Rudbeck'ia occidenta'lis 



Flower heads short-conic to columnar, 

 usually solitary, on long stalks at ends 

 of steins or stem branches 



Tuner or upper (disk) (lowers of the 

 head numerous, brownish to purplish, 

 short-tubular, perfect, seed-producing, 

 each with a chafl'y bract (palea) loosely 

 clasping it; outer (ray) (lowers of the 

 head absent 



Bracts in a series (involucre) sur- 

 rounding base of (lower head, overlap- 

 ping, usually in 2 rows, leallike, oblong 

 or lance-shaped, up to nearly 1 in. long, 

 spreading 



Leaves alternate, simple, egg-shaped, 

 tapering at tip, mostly rounded or 

 somewhat heart-shaped at base, entire 

 or irregularly and sparingly toothed, 

 bail-less or minutely rough-hairy; lower 

 leaves stalked, the stalks wing-mar- 

 gined; upper leaves stalkless 



Stems stout, occasionally 8 ft. high, 

 nearly hairless, ridged, often clustered 

 at base, usually simple 



Roots coarse, woody, fibrous, from a 

 thickened, often branched and distorted 

 crown 



"Seeds" (achenes) thickened, some- 

 what angled, each tipped by a white- 

 papery, short but deeply and minutely 

 toothed, persistent crown (pappus) 



Niggerhead is a coarse perennial herb of the aster or sunflower (composite) 

 family. It is sometimes called western coneflower, the specific name occidcn- 

 talis meaning western, and the flower heads being conspicuously cone-shaped. 

 The large amount of herbage produced by the individual plant, and its local 

 abundance over relatively extensive areas, together with its wide distribution, 

 occurring in all the western States with the exception of the Southwest, render 

 niggerhead the most important range species of this genus. 



