Purple Coneflower
Echinacea purpurea

purple coneflower © Steve Sutherland

Description: Plants to 5 feet tall with many branched stems. The rough leaves are coarsely toothed, alternate, mostly stalked, up to 8 inches long and 5 inches wide, and widest near the base. Flower heads are on individual stalks, each head 2 1/2 - 5 inches wide and consisting of up to 20 purple petal-like ray flowers surrounding a cone-shaped head of disk flowers. (See enlarged picture below.)

Flowering Period: June - August

Habitat/Range: Occasional in prairies and open woodlands, scattered throughout the tallgrass region west to south-eastern Kansas.