Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
This classic coneflower is a pollinator favorite and a host plant for the lovely Ottoe Skipper. This amazing giving plant has a rich history in herbal medicine and is still widely used in pharmaceutical preparations today.
Plants are currently provided in recycled plastic pots donated to our nursery by community members (size varies, especially at the farmstand!) or in soil blocks. Please read more about soil block here.
Description
Why are We Planting This?
Ecological Gifts
Loved by pollinators and serves as a host plant (a type of plant critical to the lifecycle of a specific species). Also resistant to the large herd of deer that frequent our yard.
Medicinal Gifts
Purple coneflower has a rich medicinal history with tribes throughout North America. Popularization of this genus in Western herbal medicine has led to over-harvesting. As we ever so slowly learn more about home herbalism, it’s a plant we’d like to get to know better and source for ourselves.
Read more about the ethnobotany of Purple Coneflower and its history of medicinal uses at the fully-referenced Plants for a Future and the Native American Ethnobotany Database.
Additional information
| Type of Plant | Native to Michigan |
|---|---|
| Sun | Full, Partial |
| Soil | Average, Dry, Wet |
| Bloom Time | August, July, September |
| Bloom Color | Purple |
| Native Plant Category | Wildflowers |
| Special Features | Host Plants, Medicinal, Pollinator Favorites |