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Perennial of the Asteraceae family, native to the eastern part of North America, where it inhabits moist prairies, forest edges, and riverbanks, mainly in the central-eastern states of the United States.
It forms upright and branched clumps, usually reaching 60 to 80 cm in height in cultivation. The leaves are oval-lanceolate, slightly rough to the touch, medium green, borne on sturdy and well-branched stems that are abundantly covered with capitula at the end of the season.
The flowers are solitary capitula with bright orange-yellow ligules, arranged in rays around a very domed central cone, dark brown to almost black — a striking contrast that earned it the vernacular name "black-eyed Susan". In its natural habitat, its flowering extends from July to October. In cultivation, it generally begins in July and continues until the first frosts, making it one of the most generous perennials of late summer.
It thrives in the sun, in ordinary to fresh, well-drained soil. Robust and undemanding, it reseeds moderately and over time forms dense clumps that are useful to divide every three or four years. Highly visited by pollinating insects, it integrates well into a naturalistic garden as well as in a more structured composition.