For Your Garden - March 2016
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Native plants provide beauty as well as food and shelter for wildlife. Native species are adapted to the Illinois climate. They require little or no watering and are resistant to drought, insects and most diseases. Because they are perennials, you can welcome their presence year after year.
brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba)
Photo © Joe Bauer, Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Brown-eyed Susan is found throughout Illinois in fields, woodlands and along streams. Flowering occurs from June through October. Numerous flowers are produced per plant. The petallike ray flowers are yellow and surround the cone-shaped, dark brown center. Leaves are arranged alternately on the stem. The plant may reach a height of five feet. The flowers of this plant are important to pollinator species.
Classification and taxonomy are based on Mohlenbrock, Robert H. 2014. Vascular flora of Illinois: A field guide. Fourth edition. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale. 536 pp.
