Latin for Gardeners
September’s Native Maryland Plant
Rudbeckia fulgida Aiton
(rud-BEK-ee-a FUL-gih-duh)
Common Name: Orange Coneflower, Black-eyed Susan
Some plants are tougher than others when it comes to withstanding heat or drought. When I was choosing plants for a new pollinator garden along my circular driveway, I knew I’d need plants that could take the heat and even, on occasion, a bit of running over by my small pickup truck; my driveway is narrow and plants that lean into the driveway are in danger of being run over from time to time. I chose Orange Coneflowers for their hardiness and value to pollinators - little did I know just how tough this plant could be and what an amazing job it would do attracting and feeding insects.
In early November 2019 I planted 50 Rudbeckia fulgida plugs along a section high up on the outer strip of my driveway. It was late in the season to plant plugs, but the area was in full sun and the ground was still warm. After planting, I watered them, put down a light layer of mulch and looked forward to summer 2020 when I hoped to see their bright yellow flowers, greeting me each time I opened my front door.
It was just a few months later, in February 2020, when I came home to find someone had used my driveway and had not been able to make the narrow turn – a moving truck¹ had run over my plugs and many other plants I had recently planted. Oh no! At this time of year, the ground was frozen so there was nothing I could do - I left the area as a spring project. In March I made the decision to leave the plugs as they were; I was worried they had been fatally wounded but I wanted to see if any could survive. Thankfully, and to my surprise, I had no need to worry. By July, the plants were already over a foot tall and beginning to bloom; throughout August and into the fall, I had a full strip of yellow coneflowers – ready to feed any hungry pollinators passing by. As it turned out, there were many pollinators nearby and they took notice.
It was not long before butterflies, skippers, bees, and beneficial wasps were enjoying the plants – I even found a camouflaged looper on one of the cones.
An added bonus: Rudbeckia fulgida attracts many beneficial insects that provide biological control of pest insects - an environmentally friendly method used in Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Non-aggressive, solitary thread-waisted wasps are excellent hunters who eat caterpillars and crickets. Scoliid wasps are parasitoids of the white beetle grubs that infest lawns. The larvae of flower fly (aka hover fly, syrphid fly) are efficient pollinators whose larvae eat aphids, thrips, and scale insects. The larval stage of elephant mosquito feeds on the larvae of other mosquito species – including Aedes, the ones that feed on people and spread diseases like Dengue and Zika. Crab spiders are ambush predators that eat mites and flies.
This perennial has proven hard to beat; it is a magnet for butterflies and beneficial insects, tolerates the dry, hot conditions found along asphalt, and perhaps most impressive, it has proven to be as tough as a moving van - and the occasional pickup truck.
As a group, Rudbeckia spp. are often referred to as ‘Black-eyed Susan’. Maryland’s state flower, the Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) differs from R. fulgida in a number of ways. R. hirta is a biennial or short-lived perennial and is typically taller than R. fulgida. R. hirta can be distinguished from R. fulgida by looking at its stems, bracts and leaves which are covered in stiff hairs – the specific epithet hirta means hairy. Both plants are the host for the Silvery Checkerspot butterfly.
¹ I discovered by looking at my Ring cameras that my neighbors’ moving truck company had not once, but twice entered my driveway as a shortcut to turning around. The plugs had withstood the weight of a moving truck with 6 tires – multiple times!