Vigorous Variability

Mary Ester and George Bollis (Class of 2020) photographed the stunning flower shown above at the Osprey Preserve and asked me to identify it.  It looked familiar, but I could not identify it.

A plant friend identified it as blackeyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), which was confirmed by Marc Frank, Extension Botanist, UF/IFAS Plant Identification and Information Services.  He wrote: Generally, the more broadly distributed a species is the more variable it is likely to be.  In the Flora of North America, four different natural varieties of Rudbeckia hirta are recognized, and three of these occur in Florida. In addition, work by some plant breeders shows that there are both diploid and polyploid forms of Rudbeckia hirta, and this probably accounts for some of the variability observed as well.

“Commercial” plants grown from cuttings or by tissue culture lack this natural variability, and many growers want their plants to always look the same.  Nature has other ideas.

Below is the  “usual” blackeyed Susan with yellow petals in a photo taken in the yard of Tom Brown (Class of 2019) …

You can see how much seed this plant produces:  Lots of chances to vary.

Note the red markings on the petals of the black-eyed Susans shown below in the yard of Fran Robinson (Class of 2018) …

Below is a photo taken in a restored natural area north of Sebastian Inlet State Park …

Mary Ester described the blackeyed Susan that she saw at Osprey Preserve as “awesome”  Marc characterized it as a “particularly attractive variant of the blackeyed Susan” …

Check out the frilly and showy phyllaries, the leaf-like structures that form one or more whorls below the flower head on this awesome wildflower.