Annuals, biennials, or perennials. Stems hispid to hirsute. Leaf blade elliptic, lanceolate, or ovate, hispid to hirsute, base attenuate to cuneate, margin entire or serrate, apex acute; basal leaves petiolate, blade 8-30 × 0.5-7 cm; cauline leaves petiolate or sessile, blade 3-20 × 0.4-4 cm. Capitula solitary or 2-5 in loose, corymbiform arrays; phyllaries to 3 cm; receptacle hemispheric to ovoid; paleae 4-6 mm, abaxially hirsute to hispid at apex, apex acute, often attenuate. Ray florets 8-16; corolla limb usually uniformly yellow to yellow-orange or with a basal maroon splotch, sometimes mostly maroon, elliptic to oblong or oblanceolate, 15-45 × 5-10 mm, abaxially hispid to hirsute. Disk 1.2-2.2 × 1-2 cm; disk florets numerous; corolla proximally yellowish green, distally brown-purple, 3-4.2 mm; style branches ca. 1.5 mm, apex subulate. Achenes 1.5-2.7 mm; pappus absent. Fl. Jun-Sep.

Rudbeckia bicolor Nuttall is listed in some Chinese floras; it is now treated as a synonym of R. hirta var. pulcherrima Farwell.

Widely cultivated and naturalized in China [native to North America].