Blog Posts

  • Echinacea simulata

    Echinacea simulata, “Glade Coneflower” or “Wavy-leaf Purple Coneflower” Asteraceae Picture taken along the driveway at Echo State Park in Missouri, formerly Camp Zoey.   Not ordinarily one used for medicine (others in genus used for acute challenges to immune system, during those hours when you realize you need to immediately take rest if you’re gonna…

  • Echinacea tennesseensis

    Echinacea tennesseensis, “Tennessee purple coneflower” Asteraceae Snapped this picture at Missouri Botanical Garden in summer 2018 with Madeline Wright and Derick Asahl. Edemic to the cedar glades of the central portion of Tennessee. It has been hypothesized that an ancestral Echinacea species spread into middle Tennessee during the hypsothermal period following the last ice age,…

  • Echinacea purpurea

    Echinacea purpurea, “eastern purple coneflower” Asteraceae That purple coneflower that’s growing in so many front yards (including Dan Bugnitz’s Columbia, MO yard in this picture) turns out to be one of the most popular herbal remedies in the US. It’s commonly used for Rhinovirus and influenza. It’s not at all hard to grow or maintain.…

  • Liatris pycnostachya

    Liatris pycnostachya “gayfeather”, “prairie blazing star” Asteraceae One of the iconic wildflowers in Missouri, seen here being pollinated by a Hemaris hummingbird moth. CC value=6. Perennial, stems 50-150 cm, mod to densely pubescent with short, curled hairs, may be glabrous toward base. Basal and low stem leaves are mostly short-petiolate, 8-40 cm x 3-13 mm,…

  • Castanea sativa

    Thanks Chris Chmiel for these pics from the Cevennes region of France. I wish we had a bigger chestnut industry in the US. May have to start one? 🤔 I remember being enthralled in 2007 at Mountain Gardens when I read about the massive chestnut orchard/forests on Corsica (see J. Russell Smith’s “Tree Crops), and…