Perennials, to 300 cm (rhizomatous, roots fibrous). Leaves green, oblong to elliptic or ovate to pandurate, herbaceous, margins crenate, dentate, entire or serrate, apices acute, faces scabrous, abaxial often glabrescent; basal petiolate, 20-65 × 8-20 cm, bases attenuate; cauline sessile, 15-40 × 4-15 cm, bases auriculate to truncate. Heads (usually 10+) in paniculiform arrays. Phyllaries to 1 cm. Receptacles conic to ovoid; paleae 4-6 mm, apices obtuse to acute, abaxial tips hairy. Ray florets 8-14; laminae oblanceolate, 18-30 × 4-8 mm, abaxially sparsely hairy. Discs 12-16 × 10-18 mm. Disc florets 150-200; corollas brown-purple, 3.5-4.2 mm; anther appendages glabrous or gland-dotted; style branches to ca. 1.8 mm, apices acute to obtuse. Cypselae 3.5-5 mm; pappi of 4-6, unequal scales, to 2 mm. 2n = 36.

Flowering summer-fall. Sandy stream banks, wet roadsides; of conservation concern; 10-90 m; Ala., Fla., Ga.

Rudbeckia auriculata is known from eight sites in Alabama, one in Florida, and one in Georgia.