Botanical Journal – Sketching a coneflower

In today’s video I will show you how I sketch the coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata).

The plants from Rudbeckia genus have a daisy like inflorescence, with yellow-orange ray florets circling conspicuous green, brown or black, cone of many small disc florets.

Here are some of the Rudbeckia species I came across:

1. Rudbeckia hirta 2. Rudbeckia triloba 3. Rudbeckia fulgida 4. Rudbeckia laciniata

Rudbeckia is native to North America and was introduced to Europe as an ornamental plant. Being slightly invasive, it is often found in pastures or forests, but it is important to remember that it is not a native or spontaneous plant in European countries.

To not be confused with other flowers that have also a dome-shaped arrangement of disc florets and yellow/orange rays:

1. Helenium autumnale 2. Ratibida columnifera 3. Silphium perfoliatum 4. Zinnia elegans 5. Inula helenium

In the journal I will add a sketch of Rudbeckia laciniata.

I came across this plant often during  my walks in the woods in August and I had the opportunity to see all the stages of flowering: young flower with the spiral arrangement of disc florets; mature flower when the flowers open gradually, from the base of the pyramid to the top, showing the yellow bilobed stigma; and also the stage when ray florets wither and fall and disk florets turn into fruit.

The purpose of the tutorial is to provide you with a method of drawing a typical flower from Asteraceae family  that has disc florets arranged in the form of a dome.

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