Rudbeckia maxima is an eye-catching perennial native to warm, moist pine woods and plains from Arkansas to Louisiana and into Texas. However, its range of acceptable climates extends farther north. R. maxima is an herbaceous perennial; plants go dormant in late fall and the foliage disappears until spring. But being a native of warmer southern regions, this rudbeckia thrives in hot, humid summers.
Rudbeckia maxima forms attractive clumps or heads of foliage low to the ground; individual leaves are "paddle-shaped," 18 inches long and 3 to 4 inches wide. Their bluish-green surfaces are glaucous (covered with a waxy, whitish material that rubs off easily) producing an interesting sheen. The common name of cabbage leaf coneflower, although undoubtedly derived from the over-sized cabbage-looking leaves, does a disservice to this striking plant. For, out of the clumps of bluish-green leaves, tall architectural flower stems shoot up to the sky like rockets in mid to late summer and explode into rays of golden yellow.
The real show comes in summertime when this perennial blooms from around July through September. Six- to seven-foot stems support bold drooping flowers that resemble soggy sombreros. The composite flower is actually composed of a prominent two-inch-long cone of tiny, black, tubular disk flowers surrounded by effervescent golden yellow ray flowers. The cone of dark disk flowers in the center of Rudbeckia maxima resembles a black eye—the common black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) is, in fact, a member of the same plant genus.
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