| Author | Aiton | |
| Distribution | Low Mountains, Piedmont, and several places in the Coastal Plain near brownwater rivers. Absent from the Sandhills proper. See note in Taxonomic Comments.
NY to IL, south to FL and AL. | |
| Abundance | Fairly common to common in the eastern and central Piedmont; uncommon to infrequent in the Mountains and western Piedmont. Rare in the Coastal Plain, essentially along brownwater floodplains. Plants usually grow in patches from spreading stolons. | |
| Habitat | Mesic to moist (or dry) roadsides, meadows, fields, forest margins, powerlines, and openings in forests and woodlands. Grows best in higher pH soil, but not a requisite. | |
| Phenology | Flowering and fruiting August-October. | |
| Identification | Among our coneflowers this one stands out because of its orange or orange-yellow ray florets (vs. pure yellow), typically slightly darker in color at the base of the rays than on the outer portions. Plants grow 1-2 feet tall when not mowed, the stems short-hairy, leaves alternate and broadly lance-shaped to elliptical or narrowly ovate. The central disk is dark brown. Though it looks somewhat like the familiar Black-eyed Susan (R. hirta), that species blooms in late spring and early summer (May to July). | |
| Taxonomic Comments | At least 3 varieties occur in NC, according to FNA. Specimens at NCU have also been annotated recently by J.J.N. Campbell. However, until specimens in other herbaria are updated, it is premature to split out the varieties here in NC. Weakley (2020) splits out R. spathulata from R. fulgida, but the editors are not certain enough that this is warranted, nor how this taxon relates to the older var. umbrosa, for example, or to the spathulata taxon.
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| Other Common Name(s) | None | |
| State Rank | S4 [S5] | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | FAC link |
| USACE-emp | FAC link |
