Purple coneflower?
anita55(zone 6 NY)
I'm hoping someone will recognize this plant that is very small with no flowers yet. Is it a purple coneflower? How do you distinguish it from coneflower plants. Anybody help ? Thanks.
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The foliage has a very echinacea-like appearance. But it also resembles the foliage of a rudbeckia, black-eyed Susan. They are very closely related. If it is tending to spread, more likely the rudbeckia than the echinacea :-)
Agree with the above........it's one or the other, lol! I think I might be seeing some tripartite leaves there, so that would nudge it towards the Rudbeckia, perhaps something with R. trilobum genes in it.
Its definitely not Rudbeckia hirta which has rough leaves with little prickles all over them, they aren't shiny like that.
It looks like E purpurea, but that trifoliate does lean me toward R trilobum as Tom mentioned.
Sure, that could happen. These two-Rudbeckias and Echinacea-are adapted to similar conditions.
Tex was only referring to R. hirta. Most other species of Rudbeckia lack this hairy or fuzzy foliage characteristic. You may still have Echinacea there-I think you do-but that factor neither proves nor disproves it.
Absolutely right, I was talking only about R. hirta, its the only Rudbeckia I grow. If you don't know what it is, you'd probably pull it because it looks are really feels like a weed--something rough that landed in your garden from 'out in the country'. Its not perennial, its well behaved and not an aggressive seeder.
It could very well be both since I seeing a mix of leaves. It looks like my perennials at this moment all mixed up and looking a lot a like.
Is there a problem? FWIW, most of the Rudbeckias, at least when planted in a "prairie" planting, are quick to come up, quick to make a show of themselves, and among the first to disappear as other more robust species take over. They don't tend to last.
not sure what your question means. My post was simply asking for an ID of a plant
Seems to me Tom was responding the the 'ugh' opinion you made about the rudbeckia type rather than the original 'What is it?" question and was trying to reassure you they are aren't thugs or undesirable plants. Thats how I read it anyway......
Its OK, I beat up on Tom all the time. He's probably the smartest guy on here though. I certainly know I'm not the smartest.
The only problem I have ever had with Black Eye Susans is they tend to get a fungus that kills them off before the end of the summer. It happened in one spot, I removed them and have planted other plants there without a problem. Now they have taken over on bed and I constantly have to thin them out. I don't think I will plant them again. I just feel bad when I have to throw them out. I tried once to sell them and some other plants like Spireas at a garage sale for a dollar a plant for our food bank and no one cared to buy them. I ended giving them to a friend whose Mother lost her house and plantings down at the show to Sandy.