Perennials, to 80 cm (not rhizomatous, not stoloniferous, rosettes at bases of aerial stems). Stems (branches ascending) moderately hirsute (hairs spreading, 1+ mm). Leaves: blades linear to spatulate (not lobed), bases attenuate to cuneate, margins entire or remotely serrulate, apices acute to rounded, faces hirsute; basal petiolate, 5-20 × 0.5-2 cm; cauline petiolate (proximal) or sessile (distal), 2-15 × 0.4-1.5 cm. Heads borne singly or (2-12) in loose, corymbiform arrays. Phyllaries to 1.5 cm (faces hairy, more densely abaxially). Receptacles mostly hemispheric; paleae 5-6.5 mm, apices rounded to acute, abaxial tips glabrous. Ray florets 9-15; laminae elliptic to oblanceolate, 10-25 × 5-8 mm, abaxially sparsely strigose. Discs 8-15 × 10-17 mm. Disc florets 150-250+; corollas proximally greenish yellow, distally purple brown, 4-5.5 mm; style branches ca. 1.5 mm, apices obtuse. Cypselae 1.5-2.7 mm; pappi coroniform, ca. 0.1 mm. 2n = 38.

Flowering late spring-fall. Dry, rocky prairies, limestone glades; 10-80 m; Ark., Ill., Ky., La., Mo., Okla., Tex.

Densely spreading-hirsute throughout, including the invol bracts; plants not stoloniferous; branches closely ascending; lvs narrow, the basal ones broadly linear to lance-spatulate, to 2 cm wide, the cauline ones linear-spatulate, entire; otherwise much like no. 3 [Rudbeckia fulgida Aiton]; 2n=38. Mostly in dry, open places; Mo. and s. Ill. to Ark. and Tex., barely entering our range. June-Oct. (R. fulgida var. m.)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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