California Coneflower (Rudbeckia californica)
Family: Sunflower (Asteraceae)
The flowers of the California Coneflower are large and easy to spot. The cones alone can reach three inches in height, with the petals drooping another three inches or so downward. The plant as a whole can reach four feet high. Most summers you can find large stands of California Coneflower in the Crane Flat area.
Blooms: July - August
Rudbeckia californica etymology: The Rudbeckia genus is named for father-and-son botanists and professors of medicine at Sweden's Uppsala University, Olaus J. Rudbeck (1630 - 1702) and Olaus O. Rudbeckius (1660 - 1740). Olof the Younger was a teacher of renowned botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707 - 78), who ultimately named the genus for them. The Nobel family (of Nobel Prize fame) descends from the elder Rudbeck.
Californica, as your strong background in Latin has already led you to deduce, refers to California, the state where California Coneflower does the bulk of its growing (it also extends a bit into southern Oregon).
This Photo: Next to the gas station at Crane Flat (the western endpoint of the Tioga Road), mid July