purple coneflower
Echinacea purpurea
The genus name 'Echinacea' comes from the Greek word 'echinos', meaning hedgehog, inspired by the prickly, dome-shaped central cone of the flower.
- Scientific name
- Echinacea purpurea
- Taxonomy
- Plantae › Tracheophyta › Magnoliopsida › Asterales › Asteraceae › Echinacea
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- stable
- Biome
- grassland
- Habitat
- Prairies, meadows, open woodlands, and disturbed grasslands.
- Diet
- Autotrophic (produces energy via photosynthesis from sunlight, water, and soil nutrients).
- Range
- Eastern North America, Midwestern United States, Great Plains
- Size
- 60-120 cm (2-4 feet) tall
- Lifespan
- 10-20 years
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Habitat destruction due to agriculture and urbanization, and occasional illegal poaching of wild roots for the herbal medicine trade.
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless and safe to approach. Enjoy watching the numerous bees and butterflies that congregate around its blooms. Do not wild-harvest plants, as wild populations are ecologically precious; instead, purchase cultivated varieties for home gardens.
Echinacea purpurea ( eastern purple coneflower , hedgehog coneflower , or purple coneflower ) is a North American species of flowering plant in the sunflower family. It is native to eastern North America and present to some extent in the wild in much of the eastern, southeastern and midwestern United States as well as in the Canadian Province of Ontario. It is most common in the Ozarks and in the Mississippi/Ohio Valley.
Photo: Sandy Wolkenberg, CC-BY, via iNaturalist
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