Coneflower, Pale Purple

Pale Purple Coneflower (Echinacea pallida) is a native perennial in the aster family (Asteraceae). It grows 2 to 3 feet tall in an upright, clump-forming shape. The flowers are about 3 inches wide, with coppery-orange center cones and thin, pale-purple to pink ray petals that droop sharply downward. It blooms in early to mid summer, ahead of many other prairie plants.

This coneflower is native to the eastern and midwestern United States, roughly from Indiana to Iowa and south to Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia. In the wild it grows in limestone glades, oak savannas, fields, prairies, and along railroad lines, though it has become less common in those spots over time. It also grows well outside its native range.

It is a low-maintenance, adaptable plant. It handles drought, heat, humidity, and poor soil, and it starts easily from seed. It prefers dry to medium, well-drained soil in full sun, but it will take part shade. The plant grows from a central taproot. Once that root is set, the plant is very drought tolerant and needs little care, but it also becomes hard to move. The taproot needs a good cover of soil to make it through winter.

Left alone, the plant self-seeds freely. Removing spent flowers slows this down if you want fewer volunteers. Wildlife uses it heavily. The flowers feed native bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, and the leaves are a host food for Ottoe skipper larvae. It is also deer resistant.