2. Ratibida pinnata (Vent.) Barnhart (grayheaded coneflower, drooping coneflower)

Pl. 286 e, f; Map 1215

Plants with a stout, horizontal rootstock (often a short rhizome) and fibrous roots. Stems 40–150 cm long, solitary or few to several, sometimes appearing clustered. Leaf blades 4–40 cm long, mostly broadly oblong-ovate to oblong-obovate or oblong-elliptic in outline (those of the undivided leaves usually lanceolate), 1 time deeply pinnately divided or compound (those of the uppermost leaves sometimes undivided), the divisions or leaflets 3–9, 1–15 cm long, entire or deeply toothed or pinnately lobed, narrowly lanceolate to ovate, with 1 or 3 main veins. Heads positioned mostly well above the leaves, the stalks to 30 cm long. Involucral bracts 10–15, those of the outer series 3–15 mm long, linear, those of the inner series 3–6 mm long, mostly narrowly ovate. Receptacle oblong-ovoid or less commonly nearly spherical, 1.0–2.5 cm long. Ray florets 6–15, the corolla (20–)30–60 mm long, yellow, the outer surface usually densely but inconspicuously short-hairy, the inner surface often sparsely hairy toward the base, both surfaces usually with scattered, minute, sessile, spherical, yellow glands. Disc florets numerous, the corolla 2–4 mm long, greenish yellow to yellowish green, sometimes purplish-tinged toward the tip. Style branches with the sterile tip slender and sharply pointed. Pappus absent. Fruits 2–4 mm long, slightly obliquely oblong, the angle opposite the chaffy bract sometimes sparsely hairy or with a narrow, lighter-colored wing. 2n=28. May–September.

Scattered nearly throughout the state but apparently absent from the Mississippi Lowlands Division and the adjacent southeastern counties of the Ozarks (eastern U.S. west to South Dakota to Oklahoma; Canada). Upland prairies, glades, savannas, openings and edges of mesic to dry upland forests, and rarely banks of streams; also fencerows, pastures, railroads, and roadsides.