Flower:

1 to several long-stalked flower heads at the top of the stem and arising from the uppermost leaf axils. Flowers have 4 to 12 droopy, wide, bright yellow petals (ray flowers), notched at the tip, around an erect, cylindrical cone. Rays are occasionally deep red or yellow streaked with red. The cone is up to 1½ inches long and covered with hundreds of tiny brown or purplish disk flowers that bloom from the bottom of the cone up; the upper part of the cone not yet blooming is gray to gray-green. The bracts surrounding the base of the flower are in 2 layers, the outer linear and the inner shorter and broader. Flowers rise well above the leaves on ribbed stalks up to 12 inches long.

Leaves and stems:

Leaves are up to 6 inches long and deeply divided, giving the appearance of compound leaves but are merely deeply lobed with 5 to 13 segments that are linear to lance-linear and may be further divided or shallowly lobed. Edges are mostly toothless, surfaces rough from stiff, appressed hairs. Stems are multiple from the base, mostly unbranched, rough-hairy, and leafy in the lower half.

Fruit:

The cone becomes a head of tiny, hairy, narrowly winged, brown seeds.

Notes:

Prairie Coneflower is a smaller plant than most other yellow flowered coneflowers. Its cone is rather long compared to others, with the rays usually about as long as the cone where other coneflowers in Minnesota have rays much longer than their cone. While rays are typically yellow, there is also a variety or form pulcherrima that has dark red rays with yellow edges, commonly called Mexican Hat, that is readily available in the nursery trade. It is occasionally found naturally occurring in the wild but may also escape cultivation.