Rudbeckia mollis Elliot
Family: Asteraceae
Soft-Hair Coneflower
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Annuals, biennials, or perennials, to 100 cm (taprooted). Stems softly pilose to woolly (hairs spreading, 1-4 mm, longer ones toward bases). Leaves: blades oblong to oblong-lanceolate (not lobed), margins entire or serrate, apices acute to obtuse, faces softly pilose to woolly, gland-dotted; basal petiolate, 5-12 × 0.5-2 cm, bases attenuate; cauline sessile, (elliptic to pandurate) 1.5-10 × 1-4 cm (mid largest, bases cuneate to auriculate). Heads borne singly or (2-12) in loose, corymbiform arrays. Phyllaries to 1.5 cm (faces hairy and gland-dotted). Receptacles conic to hemispheric; paleae 5-6.5 mm, apices acute, abaxial tips hirsute and gland-dotted. Ray florets 10-16; laminae linear to oblanceolate, 20-40 × 4-7 mm, abaxially hairy and gland-dotted. Discs 10-20 × 12-18 mm. Disc florets 200-400+; corolla bases yellowish green, otherwise brown-purple, 3-4.2 mm; style branches ca. 1.5 mm, apices acute to obtuse. Cypselae 2.5-3.5 mm; pappi 0 or coroniform, to 0.1 mm. 2n = 38.

Flowering late spring-summer. Dry, sandy soils; 30-90 m; Ala., Fla., Ga., S.C.