Waxy coneflower

Rudbeckia californica A. Gray var. glauca S. F. Blake

Perennials, to 150 cm (roots fibrous). Leaves bluish green (heavily glaucous), blades lanceolate to elliptic (not lobed), leathery, bases attenuate, margins entire or remotely serrulate, apices acute, faces glabrous; basal petiolate, 20–50 × 4–10 cm; cauline petiolate or sessile, 10–25 × 2–8 cm. Heads borne singly or (2–10) in ± corymbiform arrays. Phyllaries to 1.5 cm. Receptacles conic to columnar; paleae 4–6.5 mm, apices acute, often attenuate, abaxial tips hairy. Ray florets 7–15; laminae elliptic to oblong, 25–40 × 8–14 mm, abaxially hairy. Discs 15–35 × 14–22 mm. Disc florets 250–400+; corollas yellowish green, 3–4 mm; style branches ca. 1 mm, apices acute. Cypselae 4–5.5 mm; pappi coroniform or of ± connate scales, to 1.2 mm. 2n = 36.

Flowering summer–fall. Meadows, seeps, streamsides; 60–1300 m; Calif., Oreg.

Rudbeckia glaucescens often grows on serpentine and often with Darlingtonia.