Black-eyed Susan Rudbeckia

                                         Summer flowers along Colonial fenced garden

                                           Black-eyed Susan in Rain Garden

Most gardens have Black-eyed Susan Rudbeckia as well as purple coneflowers. Besides the common name of Black-eyed Susan, there is Brown Betty, Blackiehead, Golden Jerusalem, Poorland Daisy and Yellow Daisy. The flowers have a dark purplish brown center. The plant is native to most of North America. The plants reseed themselves after the first season. They flower from June to August.

Several years ago I read the origin of the name, Rudbeckia. The name honors Olaus Rudbeck, who was a professor of botany at the University of Uppsala in Sweden and was one of Carl Linnaeus' teachers. Linnaeus was also a tutor to Rudbeck's children when he was a student. Carl Linnaeus is known as the father of modern taxonomy of plants who laid the foundations for the scheme of binomial nomenclature. He was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist. He is considered one of the fathers of modern ecology.