Purple Coneflower
Echinacea purpurea
Family Asteraceae

Characteristics:
* Flower large, daisy-like with swept back, reddish-purple ray.
* Flower disk spiny, cone-like,brown.
* Lower leaves long-stalked, tapering with rough teeth.
* Height: 2-3'.

Natural History:
* Flowers June - October.
* Habitat: Prairies, dry clearings.
* Range: Midwestern United States and Virginia south.
* Native.

Connections!
* Echinacea has been used as an herbal remedy for centuries. Melvin Gilmore writes that the Northern Plains Indians used it "as an antidote for snake bite and other venomous bites and stings and poisonous conditions...It was employed in the smoke treatment for headache in persons and distemper in horses."

* In 1871, echinacea emerged on the commercial medicine market, and it continues to be used today to treat bodily infections and diphtheria.