Flower:  Single flower heads at ends of branches spreading away from main stems, abundant on upper part of the plant; first appearing in mid summer and continuing into mid fall; each head up to 2 inches (5 cm) wide, with about 6 to 12 yellow to orange, smooth, petal-like ray flowers surrounding a cone-shaped to rounded, brown to purplish center, the ray flowers being grooved along their lengths and having narrowly-notched, downward-curving tips, the flower head supported by 8 broad, green, fuzzy phyllaries or bracts.  The flowers have little or no scent; are sometimes self-pollinated, but mostly pollinated by insects.  

Fruit:  A small achene; 1-seeded with a thin, dry wall and no tufts of hair. 

Stem:  Upright, bushy-branched, with spreading hairs; reddish-green in color; up to 5 ft (1.5 m) tall.

Form:  Biennial or short-lived perennial; bushy and many-branched, rounded and tall in shape; forb.
 

Discussion

The genus Rudbeckia is named after the Swedish father and son who were professors of botany, O.J. Rudbeck (1630-1702) and O.O. Rudbeck (1660-1740).   Olof Rudbeck, the father, once housed the future taxonomist Linnaeus, hiring him to teach the three Rudbeck sons, securing a scholarship for the young scholar, and arranging for Linnaeus to give lectures at the botanical garden when the elder Rudbeck retired.  As a side note, Olof Rudbeck was an ancestor of Alfred Nobel of the famed Nobel Prize.  The species name triloba means “3-lobed”, presumably referring to the 3-lobed lower leaves common on this plant.

The Brown-eyed Susan is grown in the garden for ornamentation, giving the garden color in late summer.  It’s a good plant for cut flowers or for use in a butterfly garden.  A person can either buy seeds or a young plant.  It is a popular flower pattern used as decoration on plates or cups. It is also the state flower of Maryland.

The pollen and nectar attract butterflies, many types of bees and flies, and some wasps and beetles.  Deer tend to avoid the plant, though rabbits will eat the leaves.  The Brown-eyed Susan's seeds are a winter food source for songbirds.

Distinguishing Characteristics

The yellow to orange flowers of brown-eyed Susan have a dark purple-brown disk in the center, thin upper leaves that are sparsely long-haired beneath, and lower leaves divided into 3 irregular leaflets.  Brown-eyed Susan differs from the similar black-eyed Susan in having the basal leaves divided into three irregular leaflets and being taller with smaller flowers.  

Distribution

From New York to southern Minnesota and south to Florida and Texas; common in moist thickets, low woods, along streams, in prairies, low prairie pastures, wetlands, abandoned fields, brushy thickets openings or lightly shaded areas of floodplain forests, and in vacant lots; favoring disturbed areas; growing in any decent soil, but preferring sand and loam.  Our specimen was along a trail that was cut into a hillside timber around 1990.  The trail is graveled and the vegetation on the shoulders is mowed periodically. 

Images

Click each small picture to see a larger image. 

October, 2003  VD	October, 2003 HR	October, 2003 VD
October, 2003 VD	October, 2003 HR	October, 2003 HR
October, 2003 VD	October, 2003 HR	October, 2003 VD

Location

N 39.26855°    W  -89.89069°                     

Halfway down west end of fitness path, in the margin of the woods, Loveless Park, South Locust Street, Carlinville, Macoupin County, IL.      

Copyright

Photos © 2003 Valerie Donaldson and Haley Ruyle, Carlinville High School, linke@carlinvilleschools.net       
           

References

Ladd, Doug.  1995.  Tallgrass prairie wildflowers.  Falcon Press Publishing Co., Inc., Helena (MT).  262 pp.

Edsall, Marian S.  1985.  Roadside plants and flowers.  The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.  143 pp.

Reed, Daniel.  Wildflowers of the southeastern U.S. 
http://2bnthewild.com/plants/H68.htm

Tenaglia, Dan.  The Missouri Flora Website. 
http://www.missouriplants.com/Yellowalt/Rudbeckia_triloba_page.html

Wacha, Richard S.  Wildflowers of the Saylorville Lake Recreation Area.
http://www.drake.edu/artsci/biology/Wacha/brown_eyed_susan.html

Marizon, Inc.  Missouri Wildflowers.
http://www.missouriwildflowerguide.com/Flowers/BrownEyedSusan.html

Neartica.com, Inc. Neartica.
http://www.neartica.com/flowers/composit/rudbeck/Rtrilob.htm

Oak Prairie Farm LLC. Oak Prairie Farm.
http://www.oakprairiefarm.com/breysusan.htp

Prairie Nursery, Inc. Wildflowers and Native Grasses. 
http://www.prairienursery.com/SpeciesASP/rtpage.asp

Charters, Michael L. California Plant Names, Word Meanings and Name Derivations.
http://www.calflora.net/botanicalnames/pageQ-S.html

Hilty, John. Prairie Wildflowers of Illinois.
http://www.shout.net/~jhilty/plantx/br_susanx.htm

The Virtual Mirror, Inc. HortiPlex.
http://hortiplex.gardenweb.com/plants/p1/gw1035512.html

Illinois Plant Information Network.
http://www.fs.fed.us/ne/delaware/ilpin/2583.co

North Creek Nurseries, Inc.
http://www.northcreeknurseries.com/Plants/Rudbeckia%20triloba.htm

Department of Phanerogamic Botany, Swedish Museum of Natural History
http://www.nrm.se/fbo/hist/linnaeus/linnaeus.html.en

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