Washington, Wenatchee Mountain, or showy coneflower

Rudbeckia occidentalis Nuttall var. alpicola (Piper) Cronquist

Perennials, to 150 cm (rhizomes stout, plants not colonial, roots fibrous). Leaves green, ovate to elliptic or deltate, pinnate to pinnatifid or lyrate-pinnatifid, herbaceous, faces moderately to densely hairy (hairs 1-seriate); basal petiolate, 25–70 × 8–45 cm, lobes 3–9, bases rounded to acute, apices acute; cauline petiolate or sessile, 12–50 × 5–40 cm, bases attenuate to cuneate, ultimate margins dentate to lobed, apices acute. Heads borne singly or (2–10) in ± corymbiform arrays. Phyllaries to 6 cm (foliaceous, faces scabrous). Receptacles columnar; paleae 5–7 mm, apices obtuse to acute, often apiculate, abaxial tips hairy. Ray florets 0. Discs 30–80 × 18–30 mm. Disc florets 300–500; corollas brown-purple, 4.2–5.8 mm; style branches ca. 2 mm, apices acute. Cypselae 3.5–5 mm; pappi of 4 scales, to 1 mm.

Flowering mid summer–fall. Thickets, bogs, along streams; of conservation concern; 200–1500 m; Wash.

Rudbeckia alpicola is known only from Chelan and Kittitas counties.