Audubon® Native Orange Coneflower

One of the most popular Spirits of all time—and with good reason! Orange Coneflower is popular with flower arrangers for its long-lasting gold (they’re not actually orange) blossoms. It’s popular with new gardeners for its durability and ease of care. It’s popular with pollinators, like native bees, butterflies, Syrphid Flies, and beetles for its nourishing nectar and pollen. And it’s popular with songbirds for its seeds. Add this easygoing native to your mixed borders, foundation beds, rain garden, wildflower meadow, or cutting garden for weeks of joyful Black-Eyed Susan flowers and major wildlife appeal year after year.

A treat for pollinators, Orange Coneflower nourishes many of our hardworking native bees. Bumblebees, digger bees, mining bees, sweat bees, leaf-cutting bees, carpenter bees, and cuckoo bees all visit this plant to forage for nectar and pollen. One species of mining bee seeks out Rudbeckia plants (Brown-Eyed and Black-Eyed Susans) specifically to feed its young—Rudbeckia pollen is the only type of pollen its larvae can eat. Orange Coneflower is native to much of the eastern United States. Its range extends from Wisconsin to Massachusetts in the North and from Texas to Florida in the South.

Orange Coneflower plays host to some other interesting insects. The darling silvery checkerspot butterfly sometimes lays its eggs on its foliage. Several moth species take advantage of this plant, too, including the fascinating camouflaged looper. This clever caterpillar eats the flower parts of its host plant, and literally glues bits of the petals to its body while it eats to hide itself from predators! Eventually, it transforms into a pretty jade-green moth.