Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Echinacea purpurea

eastern purple coneflower, purple coneflower
Habit Plants 50–120 cm (roots fibrous).
Herbage

usually hairy (hairs spreading to ascending, to 2 mm), sometimes glabrous.
Stems

usually brownish green.
Basal leaves

petioles 0–17(–25) cm;

blades 3- or 5-nerved, ovate to narrowly lanceolate, 5–30 × (1–)5–12 cm, bases usually rounded to cordate, margins usually serrate to dentate, rarely entire.
Peduncles

8–25 cm.
Receptacles

paleae 9–15 mm, tips red-orange, straight or slightly curved, sharp-pointed.
Ray corollas

pink to purple, laminae spreading to recurved, 30–80 × 7–19 mm, sparsely hairy abaxially.
Disc corollas

4.5–5.7 mm, lobes greenish to pink or purple.
Phyllaries

linear to lanceolate, 8–17 × 1–8 mm.
Cypselae

off-white, 3.5–5 mm, usually glabrous (ray cypselae sometimes hairy on angles);

pappi ca. 1.2 mm (teeth equal).
Discs

conic, 14–45 × 20–40 mm.
2n

= 22.

Echinacea purpurea
Phenology Flowering late spring–summer.
Habitat Rocky, open woods, thickets, prairies, especially near waterways
Elevation 10–400+ m (0–1300+ ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MO; MS; NC; OH; OK; TN; TX; WI; ON
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Echinacea purpurea is introduced in Ontario. It and cultivars derived from it are extensively grown ornamentals in gardens, wildflower roadside plantings, and prairie restoration sites. Because of its popularity as an herbal remedy, it is also grown commercially. As a result of such activities, naturalized and persisting populations may extend the natural range of E. purpurea. Selections used for such plantings may differ from native forms.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 21, p. 91.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Heliantheae > subtribe Ecliptinae > Echinacea
Sibling taxa
E. angustifolia, E. atrorubens, E. laevigata, E. pallida, E. paradoxa, E. sanguinea, E. simulata, E. tennesseensis
Synonyms Rudbeckia purpurea
Name authority (Linnaeus) Moench: Methodus, 591. (1794)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers