COMPOSITE FAMILY 



COMPOSITAE 



BLACK-EYED SUSAN. YELLOW DAISY 



Rudheckia 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 i. 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, Riidbeckia julgida 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, 

 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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