Rudbeckia laciniata "Herbstsonne" and other cultivars?

Hi All,

Just happily discovered that we have Rudbeckia laciniata in our garden - but it's a non-native cultivar (probably "Herbstsonne").  The leaves smell strongly of celery.  Does anyone know if it's edible?  I've had difficulty finding seeds for the native plant.

Thanks!

Herbstsonne is apparently not confidently a selection from Rudbeckia laciniata per Missouri Botanical Gardens - https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=f400

>  'Herbstsonne' is varyingly sold as a cultivar of either Rudbeckia nitida or Rudbeckia laciniata, however some experts maintain that it is actually a hybrid between the two species. '

I would use caution, especially since you could get R laciniata seed from the well regarded Prairie Moon nursery. I had one volunteer and now have many plants, so i think growing from seed is probably not hard.

https://www.prairiemoon.com/rudbeckia-laciniata-wild-golden-glow-prairie-moon-nursery.html

cheers!

j

Awesome!  Thanks, Judielaine!  I appreciate the caution and the link.

Is this the same as the Black-eyed Susan plant?

I was under the impression it was a native plant throughout the US and Canada.

Dian do you have a picture you could post?

I think if you followed the following protocol for eating new foods, you could at least try what you’ve got.

(simplified version)
Separate the plant into its edible parts (leaves, stems, roots, buds, and flowers).
Test only one part of a potential food plant at a time.
test for contact poisoning by briefly (and softly) rubbing a piece of the plant part you are testing on your forearm. Usually waiting 15 minutes is enough time to allow for a reaction.
During the test period, ingest nothing except water.
If there is no reaction on the forearm, then before placing a piece of the plant in your mouth, softly rub a piece on your lip to test for burning or itching. If there is no reaction, try a small piece in your mouth then spit it out. Again, if there is no reaction, eat a small piece and wait an hour.

we eat quite a bit of sochan (R. laciniata), though we’re past its prime time now seasonally.

Rudbeckia laciniata is in the same genus but different species than black-eyed susan. It's known by many common names including green-head coneflower. The disk part of the flower, which is the "black-eye" in black-eyed susan, is a green cone. It gets tall, four or five feet easily. And it grows well in some shade, which is a big plus for me.

I've also had deer nibble the flower tops: i'll see if i can beat them to the new growth in the spring.

It's related, but not the same.  I'll soon take a different photo from the one I tried uploading this morning.  The platform didn't like the file type!

Thanks Greg!  What's your favourite way to prepare it?

well, keep in mind that i tend to go for it at its most tender: new leaves in spring, up through young stems with all their leaves while the stems are still soft enough to snap off. you can cut it back to prolong the harvest, but by now with it flowering, i usually don’t bother.

it’s definitely got it’s own flavor- as you say, celery-ish…but also carrot-greens-ish. a little ‘medicinal’ tasting, maybe? so it’s not a flavor to try to hide much. i’ve found i really like it with chicken, either just chopped into soup, or sometimes roasting chicken on a thick bed of the greens, so they absorb all the drippings. very nice. it also goes into tomato sauce pretty well.

Yum!  Ordering the seeds from Judielaine's suggested vendor now.

It's blooming now.

Wow!  Maybe I have the edible kind, after all?  This is what's growing in our garden, alongside squash and a tiny redbud.

i’d be trying it.

I came back from a nursery with a 5' tall by 5' wide giant for just $25.  The price made me do it, though I restrained myself from buying more than one, which was good as it filled up my car.  It was labeled 'Autumn Sun' Rudbeckia laciniata.  I looked it up when I got home and found that it's the same plant as 'Herbstsonne' and ran across that Missouri Botanical Garden site that made me not run back for a second lovely giant.  Has anyone eaten 'Autumn Sun'/'Herbstsonne' yet?  I have some young R. laciniata plants that I can harvest a few leaves from next year to do a direct comparison, but just wondering what others may have found.  I admit to wanting to go get a few more because they are so large and lovely and will give me such a jump start, but don't want to add the wrong plant.

I haven't found out if R. nitida is edible or not.  That would make me feel much more confident.  Anyone know?

Greg Martin wrote:I came back from a nursery with a 5' tall by 5' wide giant for just $25.  The price made me do it, though I restrained myself from buying more than one, which was good as it filled up my car.  It was labeled 'Autumn Sun' Rudbeckia laciniata.  I looked it up when I got home and found that it's the same plant as 'Herbstsonne' and ran across that Missouri Botanical Garden site that made me not run back for a second lovely giant.  Has anyone eaten 'Autumn Sun'/'Herbstsonne' yet?  I have some young R. laciniata plants that I can harvest a few leaves from next year to do a direct comparison, but just wondering what others may have found.  I admit to wanting to go get a few more because they are so large and lovely and will give me such a jump start, but don't want to add the wrong plant.

I haven't found out if R. nitida is edible or not.  That would make me feel much more confident.  Anyone know?

I'm no expert, Greg, but the edible kind has a strong celery scent when you pick or crush the leaf.  A friend of mine has a lookalike - maybe a cultivar? - that doesn't have the celery scent.  

Anyway, we've moved on from eating just the leaves, to also including some young stems.  A friend of ours eats the leaves raw, but the raw leaves are too hairy to be palatable IMO.  Same friend says that Rudbeckia hirta is edible, but we haven't tried it.  

Dian Hong wrote:I'm no expert, Greg, but the edible kind has a strong celery scent when you pick or crush the leaf.  A friend of mine has a lookalike - maybe a cultivar? - that doesn't have the celery scent.  

Anyway, we've moved on from eating just the leaves, to also including some young stems.  A friend of ours eats the leaves raw, but the raw leaves are too hairy to be palatable IMO.  Same friend says that Rudbeckia hirta is edible, but we haven't tried it.  

Thank you Dian!  All great info.  We're getting a heavy flooding storm right now or else I'd run out and crush up a leaf....I might anyways  I'll post back on that asap.  If nothing else this is a great storm for watering in that plant and all the others I planted yesterday.  
Much appreciated.

BTW, here's the size of the plants they were selling for $25.  Again, that's about 5' tall and wide.  Walking through the nursery it was like being behind a duck blind!  Those little plants at the base were some varieties of basil that I thought would be fun to try.  They look so tiny in comparison!

Permaculturists aren't afraid of the rain, right?  Ran down and found a leaf that was a little damaged from its trip to my home.  Ripped it up and, yeah, got some celery smell along with an aster greens sort of smell.  I snapped off some tender shoots, gave them a boil then sautéed them with some oil and salt.  Interesting flavor.  Reminds me of something that I'm struggling to peg.  Some celery, maybe a back tone of carrot.  More to it.  Complex.  I like it!  Now I have to fight the urge to run back to the nursery.