• Rudbeckia hirta (Black-eyed Susan) native plant in bloom
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Rudbeckia hirta (Black-eyed Susan)

Rudbeckia hirta (Black-eyed Susan)

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Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) produces yellow flowers with dark centers above rough, hairy leaves and stems. It adds summer color to sunny meadow and prairie plantings. Unlike a long-lived perennial that expands from the same crown for many years, this species is usually biennial or short-lived.

Plant it in full sun with well-drained soil. It tolerates average to fairly dry conditions and does not need rich soil or heavy fertilizing. Its open, upright growth makes it easy to mix with grasses and other wildflowers rather than treating it as a permanent, dense groundcover.

Allow some seedheads to mature when continued reseeding is part of the planting plan. Individual plants may disappear even where the overall population persists through new seedlings. Leave space and light for those seedlings, especially as longer-lived perennials become established around them.

Plant specifications & ecological relationships

Key growing facts

Sunlight Full sun
Soil moisture Slightly moist to moderately dry
Height About 1-2½ ft
Bloom season Primarily early to mid-summer; some plants flower in late summer or fall

Native landscape companions

For full sun and dry-mesic soil, consider these native plants alongside Rudbeckia hirta:

Companion plant Height
Copper-shouldered Oval Sedge (Carex bicknellii) About 1½–2½ ft
Old Field Goldenrod (Solidago nemoralis) About ½-2½ ft
Prairie Coreopsis (Coreopsis palmata) 1–2½ ft
Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) 1-2½ ft

These landscape suggestions combine overlapping growing needs with documented plant associations. Match soil, seasonal wetness and mature spread to your site. Remnant records are described separately under Plant communities & associates.

Show / hide ▾Growing & planting details
Growth habit Biennial or short-lived perennial reproducing entirely by seed, without rhizomes
Root form Taproot; no rhizomes
Soil pH Reported pH 4.5–7.5 (northeastern Illinois guide); not an established optimum.
Cultivation hardiness zones Zones 3a–8b (general cultivation guidance)
Drought tolerance Tolerates drought and heat
Deer browsing Deer resistance reported in cultivation guidance; browsing remains possible.
Salt tolerance Salt tolerance reported in cultivation guidance; dose and exposure route are not specified.

Plant identification & seed reference

Botanical name Rudbeckia hirta
Other common names black-eyed susan; Black Eyed Susan; Black-eyed Susan; Gloriosa Daisy
Seed germination USDA lists cold stratification as not required; seed-lot response may vary.
Plant family Asteraceae
Seeds per pound — reference estimate 1575760

Plant characteristics

This biennial plant is a medium height native plant. Its showy flowers do well in new plantings and can reseed readily.  As plantings establish it gives way to your native perennials.

  • Flower Color yellow
  • Flower Time June-August
    • Show / hide ▾Plant communities & associates

    Illinois community record

    Dry-mesic sand prairie — historical record

    Recorded in 1976 at Short Pioneer Cemetery Prairie, a small sand-prairie remnant in Grundy County. This plant was not relocated during the 2005–2006 survey; its present status is unassessed.

    This is a whole-remnant record; the plant’s exact microsite and neighboring species were not established.

    Illinois plant communities

    Mesic black-soil prairie — central Illinois

    Recorded at Loda Cemetery Prairie (Iroquois County), Weston Cemetery Prairie (McLean County). INHS identifies these sites as remnants of this community.

    Selected native plants from the same remnant records:

    These inventories include edges and disturbed patches. Shared remnant records do not establish that every plant grows together in one microsite.

    Other regional plant communities

    These plants are named with this species in published vegetation accounts. Each list keeps its community and region; some records describe a shared vegetation type rather than neighboring plants in a measured plot. They are ecological records, not a planting recipe, and may include plants unsuitable for a particular garden.

    Show / hide ▾Native range & C-value

    State nativity describes a broad range. Use the Chicago-region assessment for local context; a state listing does not establish county nativity.

    Wetland indicator — NWPL 2022 Midwest FACU
    C-value — Chicago region, Flora 2017 1
    Chicago-region native — Flora 2017 Yes
    Native range — U.S. states Alabama; Arkansas; California; Colorado; Connecticut; Delaware; Florida; Georgia; Idaho; Illinois; Indiana; Iowa; Kansas; Kentucky; Louisiana; Maine; Maryland; Massachusetts; Michigan; Minnesota; Mississippi; Missouri; Nebraska; New Hampshire; New Jersey; New Mexico; New York; North Carolina; North Dakota; Ohio; Oklahoma; Oregon; Pennsylvania; South Carolina; South Dakota; Tennessee; Texas; Utah; Vermont; Virginia; Washington; West Virginia; Wisconsin; Wyoming
    County nativity Grundy County, Illinois — historical prairie-remnant record (1976); not relocated in the 2005–2006 survey. County coverage is partial.
    Show / hide ▾Pollinators & wildlife

    Bees & other flower visitors

    USGS observations recorded the following insects visiting flowers of this plant in Minnesota, North Dakota. The records describe visits, without distinguishing pollen collection from nectar feeding or measuring successful pollination. They do not establish local occurrence, exclusive dependence, or a larval-host relationship.

    Bees

    • Apis mellifera (honey bee) — Minnesota, North Dakota; 2015, 2016.
    • Bombus sp. (genus only) — Minnesota; 2016.
    • Bombus ternarius — North Dakota; 2016.
    • Lasioglossum semicaeruleum — North Dakota; 2017.
    • Melissodes niveus — North Dakota; 2016.
    • Melissodes sp. (genus only) — North Dakota; 2016.
    • Melissodes subillata (accepted as Melissodes subillatus) — North Dakota; 2015.
    • Melissodes trinodis — Minnesota, North Dakota; 2015, 2016.
    • Protandrena sp. (genus only) — North Dakota; 2015.
    • Pseudopanurgus albitarsis — North Dakota; 2017.

    Other flower visitors

    • Bicyrtes ventralis — North Dakota; 2012.
    • Eristalis stipator — North Dakota; 2015.
    • Toxomerus sp. (genus only) — North Dakota; 2015.

    The recorded name Melissodes subillata is treated as Melissodes subillatus by the GBIF and ITIS name crosschecks. The original record name remains visible.

    Caterpillars & other plant-feeding insects

    This plant has published caterpillar host records for the butterflies and moths listed below. These are larval feeding relationships, separate from adult nectar visits. The records span a North American literature compilation and do not establish that every insect occurs locally or uses only this plant.

    Butterflies & skippers

    • Chlosyne nycteis — Silvery Checkerspot

    Moths

    • Chlorochlamys chloroleucaria — Blackberry Looper Moth
    • Synchlora aerata — Wavy-Lined Emerald, Camouflaged Looper
    • Teladoma helianthi

    Other insect & wildlife relationships

    Caterpillars this plant can feed

    Wavy-lined Emerald; Silvery Checkerspot.

    • Nectar: Butterflies use flower nectar.
    • Seed: American goldfinches eat the seeds in fall.

    Additional published species records; Illinois insect occurrence is not established by this account. These records do not guarantee that every insect occurs at your planting site.

    Show / hide ▾Frequently asked questions

    What are the ideal growing conditions for Black-eyed Susan?
    Light: Full sun. Soil moisture: Slightly moist to moderately dry.

    How do I germinate and establish Black-eyed Susan from seed?
    USDA lists cold stratification as not required; seed-lot response may vary.

    Is Black-eyed Susan deer and herbivore resistant?
    Deer resistance reported in cultivation guidance; browsing remains possible. Even plants described as resistant may be browsed. Use physical protection where deer damage is a concern.

    When should I expect Black-eyed Susan to bloom?
    Typical flowering period: Primarily early to mid-summer; some plants flower in late summer or fall. Timing varies with location and weather.

    Show / hide ▾Sources & ecological notes

    Landscape companion selection: Natural Communities compared the growing requirements shown on these species pages with selected source records: Mesic black-soil prairie — Loda Cemetery Prairie — Central Illinois. The shortlist is a planting-design inference. A shared record does not establish adjacency, identical soil requirements, local seed origin, or a tested planting combination. Regional synthesis records retain their documented focal-to-associate scope.

    Illinois communities & local records: INHS: Loda, Prospect and Weston prairie records.

    Native range & ecological ratings: Flora of the Chicago Region (2017), via Universal FQA; USACE Chicago FQA (2017); Kew WCVP / Plants of the World Online; USACE National Wetland Plant List.

    Growing conditions & other references: Illinois Wildflowers, John Hilty; USDA NRCS northeastern Illinois guide (2004); USDA Forest Service: Rudbeckia hirta; Patrick Goggin: Wisconsin native plant guide, p. 75; USDA NRCS PLANTS; USDA Forest Service: species review; NC State Extension Plant Toolbox.

    Wildlife records: Shropshire & Tallamy: caterpillar hosts (2025); USGS Pollinator Library.

    Native range does not identify the origin of the seed or plants offered. Community and wildlife records apply to the locations and conditions described.

    Research notes & credits

    USACE/ERDC fqadata — Chicago Region FQA 2017. Herman, B., Sliwinski, R. & Whitaker, S. (2017), Chicago Region FQA Calculator; distributed by USACE/ERDC in fqadata under CC0. Values may differ from Flora of the Chicago Region (2017). CC0 dedication. Retained for comparison; the displayed C-value follows Flora database 80.

    Range data: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; 4 June 2026 release, accessed 7 September 2026. © The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. CC BY 3.0; selected and reformatted. Kew cannot warrant the quality or accuracy of these data. This use has no Kew endorsement.

    Caterpillar host records: Shropshire, K.J. & Tallamy, D.W. (2025), Lepidoptera of North America, Supplement 1. Contains information from this database made available under the Open Database License (ODbL 1.0). Natural Communities selected species-level records and screened source qualifications. The complete selection and transformation instructions for this page are available below under the same license.

    Flora rating attribution: Kenneth Johnson (2018), Flora of the Chicago Region UFQA Database, following Gerould Wilhelm and Laura Rericha (2017), Flora of the Chicago Region: A Floristic and Ecological Synthesis. Individual rating facts are presented with original commentary; the calculator’s software license is not treated as a license for the underlying Flora publication.

    Detailed record links: Melissodes subillatus.

    Caterpillar research records

    Plant: Rudbeckia hirta

    Record scope: Host literature synthesis; no county nativity or local insect occurrence inferred.

    Shropshire & Tallamy (2025) · Original research dataset · Reuse license: ODbL-1.0

    Plant names in the source Source insect record IDs
    Rudbeckia hirta 202879, 202913, 212187, 212340

    How these records were selected

    To reproduce this selection, use the “UDELep May 2025” worksheet in the original research dataset.

    1. Match the insect record IDs above to column A (UDLepID). Within each table row, pair every listed insect ID with every listed source plant name.
    2. Use the first two words in column H for the insect’s scientific name, column E for its common name, and column AB for its source category.
    3. Treat the selected pairs as reported caterpillar host records. Keep all other source fields unchanged and outside this selected table. Include no other rows or host pairs.
    4. Group butterflies and skippers together, and the other categories as moths. Retain the source’s exotic-category labels and sort display names by scientific insect name.

    Historical county and community record: Phillippe, Marcum, Busemeyer & Ebinger (2010), p. 8, reporting the 1976 inventory, with IDNR remnant-site context. The original 1976 survey was not examined. Remnant origin is inferred from the historical prairie record; modern seeded areas are not used as evidence. Later restoration history is documented separately. Only selected factual records are reused; no open license is claimed for the paper.

    Growing guidance: Illinois Extension — Keeping deer out of the yard and garden. Selected facts in original wording. General deer advice is not a species resistance rating.

    Plant Shipping & Care

    We want to ensure that our customers get what they want, a native backyard oasis. To do that, we need to follow a few simple guidelines and give you some information and pointers to make sure you get your plants delivered in a healthy state.

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    Where We Ship

     

     

          What to Expect When Receiving Your Delivery

          • Your plants will be packaged with the utmost care
          • We will need to cut back certain plants prior to shipping. This seems counter-intuitive, however, the fewer leaves the less water the plants can lose during shipping, resulting in healthier plants for you. This also enables the plants to fit within the protective packaging and shipped safely.

           

             Shipments

            • Larger plant shipments will look similar to the picture below with a tray of your plants and a cardboard box to protect them during shipping.

             

             

            What to Do With Your Plants After  Receiving Your Delivery

            • Unpack your order IMMEDIATELY
            • Inspect for damage and report any issues immediately to Natives@NaturalCommunities.net
            • Water your plants
            • Install your plants as quickly as possible and water the entire garden area thoroughly
            • If you cannot install your plants immediately
              • Some plants may not be in a container, put them into some kind of a container such as a paper cup with loose soil until installation
              • Make sure each plant is receiving the appropriate amount of light.
              • Continue to water daily each morning and possibly again in the afternoon
              • No additional fertilizer is needed
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