Rudbeckia laciniata – cutleaf coneflower coloring page

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About Cutleaf Coneflower

Cutleaf coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata), also called green-headed coneflower, is a tall native perennial wildflower with bright yellow rays and raised greenish-yellow centers. It can grow much taller than many other coneflowers, often reaching 3 to 9 feet in good conditions. When it blooms in summer to early fall, the flowers appear like sunny yellow pennants held high above the surrounding greenery.

The leaves are one of the plant’s best identification clues. They are divided or deeply lobed, giving them a cut or jagged look that explains the common name. The stems are upright and branching, and the flower heads have drooping yellow rays around a rounded central disk.

Cutleaf coneflower has a bold, meadow-edge personality. It is not a small tidy border plant. It is tall, leafy, generous, and a little wild around the elbows. In a coloring page, it offers dramatic height, cut leaves, golden flowers, green centers, and plenty of opportunities to add bees, butterflies, moths, and birds.

Where Cutleaf Coneflower Grows

Cutleaf coneflower is native to much of eastern and central North America. It commonly grows in moist woods, meadows, streambanks, woodland edges, roadside ditches, thickets, wet meadows, riverbanks, and damp open places. It often appears where the soil stays reasonably moist but there is enough light for strong flowering.

This plant grows best in full sun to part shade and prefers moist, rich soil. It can also grow in average garden soil if it does not dry out too much. In favorable conditions, it can spread by underground rhizomes, so it is best placed where a tall, colony-forming native plant is welcome.

In gardens, cutleaf coneflower works well in pollinator gardens, rain gardens, moist meadow plantings, streamside gardens, woodland edges, and the back of native borders. It pairs well with Joe Pye weed, boneset, ironweed, swamp milkweed, blue vervain, goldenrods, asters, bee balm, sedges, and native grasses.

Pollinators It Supports

Cutleaf coneflower attracts many kinds of insects, including long-tongued bees, short-tongued bees, butterflies, skippers, moths, flies, wasps, and beetles. Its open flower heads provide both nectar and pollen, making it useful during the late-summer season when pollinators are still active and preparing for the next part of their life cycle.

Specific bee visitors and specialists associated with Rudbeckia or cutleaf coneflower include Andrena rudbeckiae, Andrena aliciae, Colletes species, Lasioglossum sweat bees, and larger bees such as the common eastern bumble bee (Bombus impatiens). Other likely visitors include hover flies such as Toxomerus marginatus, small beneficial wasps, and flower beetles.

Cutleaf coneflower also supports caterpillars. It is listed as a host plant for the wavy-lined emerald moth (Synchlora aerata) and is also associated with the silvery checkerspot butterfly (Chlosyne nycteis). In fall and winter, the seed heads may feed American goldfinches and other seed-eating songbirds. Dead stems can also provide nesting sites for stem-nesting native bees if left standing through winter.

For a coloring page, cutleaf coneflower pairs beautifully with a common eastern bumble bee, a small sweat bee, a hover fly, a silvery checkerspot butterfly, a wavy-lined emerald caterpillar, or an American goldfinch picking seeds from the dried heads.

Coloring Tips

Color the ray flowers bright yellow, golden yellow, or lemon yellow. The central disks are usually green to yellow-green when fresh, later turning olive, brown, or dark golden brown as they mature. Add darker yellow near the base of each ray and lighter yellow toward the tips to make the petals look lively.

The leaves are medium to deep green, with deeply cut lobes and toothed edges. Use darker green along the veins and lower leaves, with lighter green on new growth near the flower clusters. The stems can be green, yellow-green, or slightly reddish-green.

For the background, place cutleaf coneflower in a moist meadow, streambank, woodland edge, rain garden, or sunny wetland border. Add goldenrods, asters, Joe Pye weed, sedges, or tall native grasses around it. To show wildlife value, include a common eastern bumble bee, silvery checkerspot butterfly, hover fly, or American goldfinch visiting the flowers or seed heads.