Rudbeckia heliopsidis

Perennials, to 120 cm (rhizomatous). Stems villous to glabrate. Leaves: blades elliptic, lanceolate, or ovate (flat, not lobed), bases acute to rounded or cuneate, margins entire or serrate, apices acute, faces glabrous or sparsely strigose and gland-dotted; basal petiolate, blades 10-20 × 2-5 cm; cauline petiolate (proximal) or nearly sessile (distal), blades 2-20 × 1-4 cm. Heads usually (4-8) in ± corymbiform arrays, sometimes borne singly. Phyllaries to 1.5 cm (faces sparsely to moderately hairy and gland-dotted). Receptacles hemispheric to ovoid; paleae 3.2-4.2 mm, apices rounded to acute, abaxial tips canescent and gland-dotted. Ray florets 6-12; laminae elliptic to oblanceolate (spreading), 15-30 × 3-6 mm, abaxially strigose and gland-dotted. Discs 10-15 × 7-15 mm. Disc florets 100-200+; corollas proximally yellowish green, distally brown-purple, 3-4 mm; style branches ca. 1.4 mm, apices obtuse. Cypselae 2-3 mm; pappi coroniform, to 1.5 mm (sometimes cypselae each with glandular hairs around apices).

Flowering summer-fall. Mesic to wet woodlands, meadows; of conservation concern; 70-200 m; Ala., Ga., N.C., S.C., Va.

Perennial from a woody rhizome; stem 6-10 dm, spreading-villous to subglabrous, sparsely leafy; lvs thin, subglabrous or sparsely hairy, serrate or subentire, the basal very long-petiolate, the cauline progressively less so, the principal ones with ovate to elliptic-ovate or lance-ovate blade mostly 6-10 נ3-5 cm; heads several; disk dark, hemispheric or ovoid, 10-15 mm wide; invol bracts short, with loose or spreading tip; rays ca 13, yellow, 1.5-2.5 cm; receptacular bracts broadly rounded, distally viscidulous-canescent; pappus a minute crown. Pine and oak-hickory woods; rare and local from se. Va. to S.C., Ga., and ne. Ala. July-Sept.

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

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.