Species
+

Rudbeckia triloba L.

Brown-eyed Susan (EN), Brown-eyed-susan, Browneyed Susan, Dreilappiger Sonnenhut (DE)

Climate known 65 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Rudbeckia triloba, the browneyed or brown-eyed susan, thin-leaved coneflower or three-leaved coneflower, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae with numerous, yellow, daisy-like flowers. It is native to the central and eastern United States and is often seen in old fields or along roads. It is also cultivated as an ornamental.

Text from Wikipedia, “Rudbeckia triloba”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Rudbeckia

Rudbeckia is a plant genus in the Asteraceae or composite family. Rudbeckia flowers feature a prominent, raised central disc in black, brown shades of green, and in-between tones, giving rise to their familiar common names of coneflowers and black-eyed-susans. All are native to North America, and many species are cultivated in gardens for their showy yellow or gold flower heads that bloom in mid to late summer.

Text from Wikipedia, “Rudbeckia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Ontario, Québec, Colorado +32
Wild records
1855 in range· 442 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jul, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1074mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 111 mm (CHELSA)
Light
11–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to November in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1074 mm a year, wettest June at 111 mm, driest February at 63 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -16.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Centrocarpha aristata (Banks ex Pursh) D.Don, 1838; Centrocarpha aristata (Banks ex Pursh) Sweet; Centrocarpha triloba (L.) D.Don; Centrocarpha triloba (L.) Sweet; Centrocarpha triloba Loudon, 1832 and 7 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to November in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (789 mm of 1074 mm) takes 8 months, April to November. Mean temperature moves 26.0 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to May.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1074 mm a year, wettest June at 111 mm, driest February at 63 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1074 mm a year at the habitat, 789 mm of it April to November. Wettest month June at 111 mm, driest February at 63 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 889 mm to 1344 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 9, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -16.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -16.8 °C, the absolute minimum -25.5 °C, about 122 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -6.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells -11.1 °C to -0.4 °C), warmest day 28.2 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -16.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 61% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 2 °C in Jan to 28 °C in Jul; mean night from -6 °C in Jan to 19 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1074 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1351 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -25.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost33.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)-25.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 11–40RH 56–61 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1351 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C2 / -3–84 / -1–119 / 5–1616 / 12–2121 / 18–2526 / 24–2928 / 26–3127 / 25–3123 / 21–2717 / 14–2110 / 7–154 / -0–9
Night °C-6 / -11–-0-5 / -10–1-1 / -4–55 / 3–1011 / 9–1517 / 14–1919 / 17–2219 / 17–2115 / 13–188 / 6–123 / -0–6-3 / -8–1
Rain mm67 / 29–10663 / 36–11379 / 52–12096 / 77–116110 / 91–140111 / 92–131110 / 92–12799 / 83–11994 / 80–11583 / 69–10786 / 60–11176 / 41–121
DLI13 / 11–1619 / 17–2126 / 25–2833 / 32–3537 / 36–3840 / 39–4140 / 38–4135 / 33–3728 / 26–3120 / 18–2413 / 11–1711 / 9–14
RH %60 / 57–6459 / 56–6257 / 55–5856 / 55–5757 / 55–5958 / 56–6058 / 57–6059 / 58–6158 / 57–6157 / 56–6059 / 57–6161 / 57–63

Each figure is the median across the 1351 grid cells holding the 1777 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 952:2177 (42.375, -71.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -25.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -16.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1351 distinct grid cells holding the 1777 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 952:2177 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 42.50_-71.250, lapse-corrected -63 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 8 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeOntario, Québec, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia, Utah, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia· introduced: Great Britain, Austria, Germany, Italy, Romania, Ukraine, Tunisia, North Caucasus
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker42.936, -88.474 · in the densest population, 357 records (19% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1855 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 442 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 29 km away. 42 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 78 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1855 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Rudbeckia trilobaRudbeckia trilobaRudbeckia trilobaRudbeckia trilobaRudbeckia trilobaRudbeckia trilobaRudbeckia trilobaRudbeckia triloba

Photographs: (c) Tom Norton, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) KAnatoliy, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Rudbeckia triloba, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Establishing native plants on newly‐constructed and older‐reclaimed sites along West Virginia highways
Jeff Skousen, Christina Venable (2008) · Land Degradation and Development
Contrasting Foraging Patterns: Testing Resource-Concentration and Dilution Effects with Pollinators and Seed Predators
Alexandria Wenninger, Tania N. Kim, Brian J. Spiesman, Claudio Gratton (2016) · Insects
Drought Response of Three Ornamental Herbaceous Perennials
Kelly J. Prevete, R. Thomas Fernandez, William B. Miller (2000) · Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science
Studies on Chemical Composition and Antioxidant Activity of Rudbeckia triloba
Z. Moldovan, Mihaela Buleandră, Eliza Oprea, Zamfirica Mînea (2017) · Journal of Analytical Methods in Chemistry
New records of Asteraceae for the non-native flora of Tunisia and north Africa with some nomenclatural remarks
Ridha El Mokni, Duilio Iamonico, Errol Véla, Filip Verloove (2022) · Mediterranean Botany
Contribution to the Knowledge of the Alien Flora from Romania: Rudbeckia triloba L. and Senecio inaequidens DC.
C. Sîrbu, Adrian Oprea (2010) · Notulae Botanicae Horti Agrobotanici Cluj-Napoca
NEW FINDINGS OF ALIEN PLANT ERGAZIOPHYTES IN THE LEFT BANK FOREST-STEPPE OF UKRAINE
D. A. Davydov (2021) · Scientific Bulletin of Natural Sciences (Biological Sciences)
Ambrosanolides and Other Constituents of TwoRudbeckiaSpecies
Alicia B. Gutiérrez, Werner Herz (1990) · Planta Medica
Rudbeckia triloba (Asteraceae) – новий вид адвентивних рослин у флорі України
МИРОСЛАВ ВАСИЛЬОВИЧ ШЕВЕРА, ОЛЕКСАНДР ОЛЕКСАНДРОВИЧ ОРЛОВ, ОЛЕНА ДМИТРІВНА ВОЛУЦА, Roman Kish (2020) · Chornomorski Botanical Journal
NEW AND RARE PLANTS FROM THE FLORA OF MOLDAVIA (ROMANIA)
C. Sîrbu, Adrian Oprea (2010) · Cercetari Agronomice in Moldova
Three-lobed Coneflower Rudbeckia triloba L. (Compositae): new alien species in the flora of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Semir Maslo, Šemso Šarić (2018) · Hrčak Portal of scientific journals of Croatia (University Computing Centre)

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Rudbeckia 6 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 57 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.