Rudbeckia mollis Elliott

Soft Hair Coneflower; Woolly Coneflower

Herb

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Vascular

Soft Hair Coneflower is a native annual, biennial, or short-lived perennial in the Sunflower family (Asteraceae). It can be found in extreme southeast Alabama. Soft Hair Coneflower occurs in sandhills, in xeric sandy pine woods, and in disturbed sandy roadside clearings. It has a tap root. Soft Hair Coneflower has stems that are 1-3 feet in height, woolly pubescent, and branched or simple. The stems are leafy throughout. Leaves are alternate, basal (forming a rosette absent at flowering) and cauline. Basal leaves are petiolate, oblong in outline, softly pilose to woolly, and gland-dotted. Stem leaves are alternate, sessile, elliptic to pandurate in outline, entire or serrate, softly pilose to woolly, and gland-dotted. The leaf bases on stem leaves are cuneate to auriculate. Flowers are produced in heads. The heads are arranged in corymbiform arrays. Each head has 10-16 yellow-orange ray flowers and 200-400 purple disc flowers. The fruit is an achene. Soft Hair Coneflower is listed as an S1 species in Alabama (typically 5 or fewer occurrences, very few remaining individuals, or some factor of its biology making it especially vulnerable in the state), and Globally as a G3G5 species (G3-imperiled globally because of rarity (6 - 20 occurrences, or few remaining acres, or miles of stream) or very vulnerable to extinction throughout its range because of other factors; G5-demonstrably secure globally, though it may be quite rare in parts of its range, especially at the periphery). Soft Hair Coneflower is a host plant for the caterpillars of Silvery Checkerspot (Chlosyne nycteis) and Gorgone Checkerspot (Chlosyne gorgone) butterflies.—A. Diamond

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Native S1 (State Rank) G3G5 (Global Rank)

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