Common Name: Prairie Coneflower
Scientific name: Ratibida columnifera (Nutt.) Woot. & Standl.
Family: Asteraceae (Compositae) Aster/Sunflower Family
Other names:
- columnar prairie coneflower
- long headed coneflower
- Mexican hat
- red-spike Mexican-hat
- upright prairie coneflower
Description
General
Perennial, stems 1 to several in a cluster, erect, 20-50 cm (8-20 in) tall, from a stout taproot, rough, stiff hairy.
Leaf
Leaves alternate, 5-15 cm (2-6 in) long, deeply pinnately lobed or compound, the lobes or divisions narrowly lanceolate to linear, sometimes 2-3 cleft, loosely hairy, glandular-pitted.
Flower
Flower heads usually single at tips of long peduncles, radiate, with 4-6 yellow, occasionally dark purplish or chocolate brown, ovate, reflexed ray florets 15-25 mm (0.6-1) in long, central disk or receptacle cylindric, 1-4 cm high, about 1 cm (0.4 in) across, disk florets dark brownish to purplish. Ray florets rarely absent. flowering occurs from July to September.
Fruit
Fruit a cylindrical head of flattened, grayish achenes, each with a pappus of 1-2 teeth.
Habitat
Dry prairie grassland, slopes, on disturbed areas such as roadsides and wasteland.
Range
Native. Southeastern British Columbia to Manitoba, introduced in Ontario, south to California and Texas. Found in the grasslands and parklands of southern and central Alberta.
Recognition
A perennial herb with several coarsely hairy, stiff, leafy stems up to 50 cm tall. The alternate, hairy, leaves, 5-15 cm (2-6 in) long, are pinnately divided into linear to lanceolate segments or lobes, these sometimes subdivided. The flower heads consist of a cylindrical column 1-4 cm (0.4-1.6 in) high with dark gray to yellowish-brown disk florets and 4-6 ovate, un-notched, often drooping, yellow ray florets 15-25 mm (0.6-1 in) long. A genetic variant with chocolate- or purplish-brown ray florets occasionally occurs with the normal plants.
The hairy, pinnately lobed or divided leaves, yellow flowers with tall, dark columnar centers and reflexed yellow ray florets 15-25 mm (0.6-1 in) long are distinctive. Gaillardia (Gaillardia aristata) is somewhat similar but has notched petals and a hemispherical central disk.
Comments
Prairie coneflower was first described as Rudbeckia columnifera by Thomas Nuttall in 1813. It was moved to the genus Ratibida in 1915 by E. O. Wooton and P. C. Standley.
The derivation of the species name is unknown. The species name is derived from the Latin columna (column), referring to the columnar central disk of the flower head.
The genus Ratibida includes 4 or 5 species of North America and Mexico. One species occurs in Alberta.
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