This species of coneflower is also known as drooping coneflower and weary Susan because its yellow ray flowers are soft and droopy. It has a slender, grayish cone that blooms from the bottom up and smells of anise when bruised. A native of dry prairies (it's also known as pinnate prairie coneflower), it thrives in a wide range of medium to dry soils--including nutrient poor and clay--and full to part sun. It tolerates heat, drought, seasonal flooding, part shade, and poor soils; if the soil is too moist or rich, the stiff stems may flop. The showy flowers bloom for an extended time and the plant spreads easily by rhizomes to form clumps or colonies, making the plant useful for prairie restorations. While individual plants are narrow and sparsely adorned with coarse, hairy leaves, colonies of gray-headed coneflower look spectacular with massed with purple coneflower, and the tall stems benefit from the support of nearby plants. Also known as gray head Mexican hat, gray-headed coneflower is a valuable source of food for native bees, which flock to the infertile, bright yellow rays (another common name is yellow coneflower). The fertile, rich-brown disk flowers reward the visiting bees and butterflies with nectar and pollen. Later, goldfinches and other song birds devour the seeds.
 
Native habitats include fields, moist or slightly dry prairies, roadsides, dry woods, and woodland borders.  Ideal for sunny borders, native and pollinator gardens, woodland edges, meadows, roadside plantings, wildlife cover, water-wise landscapes, rain gardens, and prairie restorations. Great for cut-flower arrangements.   
 
Plant Characteristics:
Grows 3 - 5’ tall and 1 ½ - 2’ wide.
 
Prefers full sun and tolerates part shade.
 
Prefers medium moisture and adapts to a variety of well-drained, moist or slightly dry soils, including sandy and loamy. Tolerates clay and poor soils.
 
Flowers bloom June-August with 1-12 flower heads on long, ridged stalks at tips of branching stems. Flower heads consist of 3-15 yellow ray flowers surrounding a domed, ½” cone of hundreds of tiny, gray-brown disk flowers. In fall, the cone becomes a head of small, brown seeds with toothlike projections and no tufts of hair.
 
Irregular-shaped basal leaves are on stalks up to 8” long and 5" wide, deeply divided into 3-7 narrow, toothed lobes.  Upper leaves are smaller and often unlobed.  Leaves are covered in short hairs. Leaves become smaller and stalkless as they ascend the rough stem, which is unbranched except at the top.
 
Wildlife Value:
Host plant for larvae of silvery checkerspot butterfly (pictured here with its caterpillars, which feed gregariously) and specialists sunflower, Epiblema iowana, and wavy-lined moths. Common bee pollinators include bumble, sweat, long-horned, and leafcutters. Wasps, beetles, flies, and butterflies such as Viceroy, monarch, azure, sulphur, crescent, and hairstreak also visit the flowers.  Goldfinches eat the seeds.  
 
Medicinal, Edible, and Other Uses:
The cone and leaves have been used to make tea, and the roots to cure toothaches.
 
Resources:
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=RAPI
 
North Carolina Extension: https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/ratibida-pinnata/