Plant of the Week 01/23/2006: Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)

Plant of the Week 01/23/2006

Rudbeckia hirta Linnaeus

Photographed by: Chelsie Vandaveer
Credits: Black-eyed Susan photographed in personal garden.
Other Information: Olympus C-8080wz

The gloriosa daisy or black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta Linnaeus) is one of twenty or so species of Rudbeckia or coneflowers, all native to North America. Typical of the family Asteraceae, the "flower" is actually an inflorescence composed of infertile ray florets, the "petals", and fertile disc florets crowded at the center.

Black-eyed Susans are biennials or short-lived perennials and popular butterfly plants—cultivated to attract butterflies by offering a source of nectar. The plants usually grow the first year and bloom from summer to fall in the second and, sometimes, third years. With each disc floret capable of producing a seed, the plants reseed themselves. The gardener simply needs to rearrange the plants where wanted or pull if there are too many.

The black-eyed Susan was the first species to receive the name Rudbeckia. Carl von Linné created the generic name in honor of one of his mentors, Olof Rudbeck the Younger, a professor of medicine at Uppsala. In 1729, as a student, Linné, 'inherited' a garden, the garden built at the university by Olof Rudbeck the Elder in the 1660s.

Although the Younger had taken over the Rudbeckian Garden after his father's retirement in 1692, it fell into disrepair. Linné began restoring and redesigning Rudbeck's garden. It became a showplace at the university. In later years, the Linnaean Garden would house thousands of plants sent back by Linné's students from all over the world.

During the years of studying, teaching, and garden renovation, Linné set out alone on a trip to Lappland, a trip Rudbeck the Younger had taken years earlier. Linné started the journey on his 25^th birthday, May 12, 1732. Rudbeck had focused on ornithology, writing and illustrating a book of birds of the far north. Linnaeus would focus on the plants.

Linnaeus was the first trained botanist to travel with the intent of recording the plants of another country. And he went a step further—his journal noted the uses of various plants and fungi by the Saami, the native Lapplanders.

(Compiled from: Hortus Third, Staff L.H. Bailey Hortorium, NY State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Macmillan, NY, 1976; A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants, C. Brickell and J.D. Zuk, eds. American Horticulture Society, DK Publishing, NY, 1996; "The Unfinished Journey of Carl Linnaeus", Paul Alan Cox, Plant Talk, January 1999; and "Linnaean Garden-History" and "Olof Rudbeck, Sr (1630-1702)", Uppsala Universitet, 2006)