黑心菊 hei xin ju

Annuals, biennials, or perennials. Stems hispid to hirsute. Leaf blade elliptic, lanceolate, or ovate, hispid to hirsute, base attenuate to cuneate, margin entire or serrate, apex acute; basal leaves petiolate, blade 8-30 × 0.5-7 cm; cauline leaves petiolate or sessile, blade 3-20 × 0.4-4 cm. Capitula solitary or 2-5 in loose, corymbiform arrays; phyllaries to 3 cm; receptacle hemispheric to ovoid; paleae 4-6 mm, abaxially hirsute to hispid at apex, apex acute, often attenuate. Ray florets 8-16; corolla limb usually uniformly yellow to yellow-orange or with a basal maroon splotch, sometimes mostly maroon, elliptic to oblong or oblanceolate, 15-45 × 5-10 mm, abaxially hispid to hirsute. Disk 1.2-2.2 × 1-2 cm; disk florets numerous; corolla proximally yellowish green, distally brown-purple, 3-4.2 mm; style branches ca. 1.5 mm, apex subulate. Achenes 1.5-2.7 mm; pappus absent. Fl. Jun-Sep.

Widely cultivated and naturalized in China [native to North America].

Rudbeckia bicolor Nuttall is listed in some Chinese floras; it is now treated as a synonym of R. hirta var. pulcherrima Farwell.