Category: Asteraceae

Echinacea simulata

~ Badger Johnson
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 make it out of a stressful week without getting sick), but I imagine it could work similarly. Many commercial root diggers have assumed this too, and sold this species as E. purpurea. 
 
Perennial. Stems (40)60-120 cm tall, sparsely to mod pubescent with  stiff, minutely pustular-based hairs.
Alternate leaves, margins entire and usually pubescent with loosely appressed hairs. Leaf surfaces mod to densely pubescent with stiff, mostly spreading, minutely pustular-based hairs. Mod to strongly roughened, 3(5) main veins. Basal leaves 8-35 cm long; stem lvs 4-25 cm long.
 
Yellow pollen. Pale pink to purplish pink ray flowers
 
Found on dolomite glades, tops of bluffs, savannas, woodlands.
 
Compare to Rudbeckia missouriensis (petioles are very fuzzy rather than having a few scattered hairs) and Coreopsis lanceolate (one main vein, leaf edge slightly translucent)
 
Very similar species to Echinacea pallida (pale purple coneflower), CC=7, which in Missouri is found mostly in prairies in southwest part of the state; pollen white, ray flowers paler.
 
(Hybrid MOFEP/Park Service Fire Ecology Manual)

Echinacea tennesseensis

~ Badger Johnson

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, when conditions were drier and prairies extended into much of the central eastern U.S. that is now forested. As conditions became wetter, the Echinacea populations became isolated on the prairie-like habitat of the cedar glades which were eventually surrounded by forest. This isolation resulted in divergence and speciation of E. tennesseensis.

A noticeable characteristic is its generally erect ray flowers, in contrast to the more drooping rays of its most similar congener, E. angustifolia (widespread throughout the prairie of the central U.S.) and other common Echinacea species such as E. purpurea.

The Tennessee coneflower was once a federally listed endangered plant species and its recovery has been aided by the purchase of habitat by TNC and the State of Tennessee. The Fish and Wildlife Service proposed that this plant be removed from the endangered species list because all the former threats to the species are eliminated or reduced. The Tennessee coneflower was delisted in 2011.

(Wikipedia)

Echinacea purpurea

~ Badger Johnson

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. It goes great in a rain garden or pollinator garden and propagates easily through root division. You can dig it up, tincture it in Everclear in the dark for 30 days and take a shot every few hours as soon as you notice your body just about to get sick (that takes some bodily self-awareness). Don’t forget to get a bunch of sleep, as well as and stopping activities that would otherwise compromise your body’s immune system!

Echinaceas are heavy phosphorous feeders and will bloom prolifically after a dormant season prescribed fire.

“While there is some controversy about which of the constituents of Echinacea contribute to the immunostimulatory activity, there is a consensus that the lipophilic alkylamides, as well as the polar caffeic acid derivative, probably make the primary contribution to the activity of alkoholic extracts by stimulating phagocytosis of polymorphonuclear neutrophyl granulocytes. In addition to these constituents, polysaccharides are implicated in the activity of the expressed juice and aquaeous extracts, and in the response to the powdered whole drug.” (VAVERKOVÁ and VAVERKOVÁ 2006)

“If the E. purpurea seeds are from a wild source (not cultivated material), a period of cold, moist stratification at 43 degrees for thirty days is recommended…. If grown from seeds, expect flowers in the second or third year. When other plants succumb to droughty conditions, echinaceas will withstand the dry weather with little attention. They do well in any average, well-drained garden soil and prefer a lightly alkaline to neutral pH. Good drainage is essential. Echinaceas do not favor highly enriched, wet soils. Full sun is preferable, though E. purpurea does well under dappled shade. Yield of up to a ton of dried root and tops per acre can be expected.” (United Plant Savers, 2013)

Liatris pycnostachya

~ Badger Johnson

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, linear or narrowly oblanceolate, glabrous to densely short-hairy, green, 3-5 main veins; stem leaves mostly sessile, 1.5-15 cm, linear.

Flower heads are densely spaced (axis mostly not visible), sessile or with stalks 1 mm long, and 1 basal bract.

Involucral bracts are broadly lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, tapered to long. Bract tips are sharply pointed spreading or recurved.

Found on prairies, fens, glade seeps and roadsides.

(Hybrid MOFEP/Park Service Fire Ecology Manual 2018)