The “disk” of gray-headed coneflower is a rounded, inch-long knob. It starts off gray, but as the disk florets open and bloom, it turns brown. This native wildflower grows almost statewide in prairies, glades, pastures, fencerows, and roadsides.
Gray-headed coneflower is a perennial herb with one to several slender, hairy stems growing from a horizontal rootstock. Like others in its genus, the stems and leaves usually have short, stiff hairs.
The leaves are alternate and vary depending on position on the stem; they can be simple (but deeply divided, nearly compound), or they can be pinnately compound. The 3–7 leaf segments are narrowly lanceolate, sparsely toothed.
The flowerheads arise well above the leaves and have 6–15 drooping yellow ray florets to 3 inches long. The "disk" (receptacle) rises like a rounded, egg-shaped, or spherical knob above the rays, reaching about 1 inch in length. It starts out gray, then turns brown as the florets open.
Blooms May–September.
The fruits are achenes (structurally like sunflower "seeds") about ⅛ inch long.
Similar species:
- Of the two other prairie coneflowers (genus Ratibida) recorded for Missouri, only one is likely to be encountered: Longhead prairie coneflower, or Mexican hat (R. columnifera), is scattered in the western half of the state. It grows from a (vertical) taproot, and its column-shaped "disk" (receptacle) reaches 2 or even 2¾ inches long.
- Other Missouri plants called "coneflowers" include 5 species of Echinacea coneflowers, and 9 species of Rudbeckia, which are often called black-eyed Susans.
Height: 15 inches to 5 feet.
Scattered nearly statewide, but absent from the southeast (Bootheel) lowlands and nearby Ozark counties.
Habitat and Conservation
Occurs in upland prairies, glades, savannas, openings and edges of rich to dry upland woodlands, and rarely banks of streams; also fencerows, pastures, railroads, and roadsides.
Gray-headed coneflower is also cultivated as a garden ornamental.
Status
Native Missouri wildflower.
Human Connections
This species and other prairie coneflowers are popular native plants for flower gardening, and special cultivars have been developed. It blooms over a long period during the summer, tolerates poor, dry soils, and is great for sunny areas, naturalized in prairie plantings, or massed in clumps. It attracts butterflies and other pollinators.
Native Americans used them for a variety of medicinal uses and also made tea out of the flowers and leaves. If you rub the disks, they smell something like anise.
Ecosystem Connections
Many types of bees, butterflies, wasps, beetles, and other insects are drawn to the flowers, where they receive nectar in exchange for their cross-pollination services.
Herbivores ranging from caterpillars to woodchucks eat the leaves. One butterfly, the silvery checkerspot, requires this and other sunflower-family plants as larval hosts.
The caterpillars of the wavy-lined emerald and the common eupithecia (both are geometrid moths) eat this plant and its relatives. The former decorates itself with small clippings from flower petals to hide from predators. The latter is a small inchworm with a bold pattern of repeating arrow shapes down its back.
Common names can be confusing! In Missouri, three different genera of plants are called "coneflowers."
- Those in the genus Ratibida (including gray-headed coneflower) are called prairie coneflowers or Mexican hats; the center disks in this genus are typically quite tall and cylindrical.
- Coneflowers in genus Echinacea all have simple leaves, spiny disks, and purple or pinkish flowers (except for yellow coneflower, E. paradoxa).
- Black-eyed Susan, and other members of genus Rudbeckia, are also often called coneflowers. Like echinaceas, their leaves are usually simple and unlobed, but unlike echinaceas, their disks aren't spiny.
