When does upright prairie coneflower bloom in Texas?

Most often in May. Across 1,287 dated, research-grade observations of Ratibida columnifera in Texas, the flowering season runs roughly April to November.

Peak May In flower 1,287 Examined 1,392 State Texas

Flowering 1,287 in flower of 1,392 examined

67%

65%

74%

92%

99%

98%

97%

90%

83%

94%

75%

Proportion of examined Ratibida columnifera in Texas in flower, by month
Month	In flower	Examined	Share	95% interval
Jan	14	21	67%	45% to 83%
Feb	15	23	65%	45% to 81%
Mar	63	85	74%	64% to 82%
Apr	344	372	92%	89% to 95%
May	406	411	99%	97% to 99%
Jun	140	143	98%	94% to 99%
Jul	58	60	97%	89% to 99%
Aug	37	41	90%	77% to 96%
Sep	52	63	83%	71% to 90%
Oct	91	97	94%	87% to 97%
Nov	49	52	94%	84% to 98%
Dec	18	24	75%	55% to 88%

Peak flowering in May. Each bar is the share of Ratibida columnifera in Texas observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 1,287 of 1,392 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.wt38fd.

What this is, and what it is not

This is a record of when people in Texas found Ratibida columnifera in flower, not a forecast. It is computed only from observations made in Texas, so it is not the species’ global average dragged onto a map: the same plant flowers on different dates in different places, and that is the entire point of the page.

It will not tell you what your particular plant will do this year. Bloom time moves with the season, with altitude, and with the weather, and a warm February pulls everything forward. We publish the distribution and the sample size, and we refuse to draw a month that too few people examined.

The plant

Ratibida columnifera

upright prairie coneflower

Sourcesevery claim on this page

GBIF (iNaturalist Research-grade Observations). Dated flowering annotations in Texas. Every record achieved iNaturalist quality grade Research, which is applied upstream at export. 10.15468/dl.wt38fd. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
World Flora Online Plant List. The accepted name. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.