Echinacea - Purple Coneflower

Echinacea, commonly called Purple Coneflower, is a genus of nine species of herbaceous plants in the family Asteraceae. All are strictly native to eastern and central North America. The plants have large, showy heads of composite flowers, blooming from early to late summer. Some species are used in herbal medicines.

The genus name is from the Greek echino, meaning "spiny", due to the spiny central disk. They are herbaceous, drought-tolerant perennial plants growing to 1 or 2 m in height. The leaves are lanceolate to elliptic, 10–20 cm long and 1.5–10 cm broad. Like all asteraceae, the flowers are a composite inflorescence, with purple (rarely yellow or white) florets arranged in a prominent, somewhat cone-shaped head - "cone-shaped" because the petals of the outer ray florets tend to point downward (are reflexed) once the flower head opens, thus forming a cone.

Echinacea is popularly believed to be an immunostimulator, stimulating the body's non-specific immune system and warding off infections. A common reference source for believers is a 2007 meta-analysis in The Lancet Infectious Diseases; however, this study fails to indicate important confounding factors that could drive the reported conclusion. The studies pooled in the meta-analysis used different types of echinacea, different parts of the plant, and various dosages. This review cannot inform recommendations on the efficacy of any particular type of echinacea, dosage, or treatment regimen. The safety of echinacea under long-term use is also unknown.


Species
Echinacea angustifolia (Narrow-leaved purple coneflower, blacksamson echinacea) is a herbaceous plant species in Asteraceae. The plants grow 40 to 70 cm tall with spindal shaped tap-root like roots that are often branched. The stems and leaves are moderately to densely hairy. Echinacea angustifolia blooms late spring to mid summer. It is found growing in dry prairies and barrens with rocky to sandy-clay soils.

Echinacea atrorubens - Topeka Purple Coneflower is a herbaceous perennial plant growing from 50 to 90 cm tall from elongate-turbinate roots that are sometimes branched. The stems and foliage are usually hairy with appressed to ascending hairs 1.2 mm long (strigose), rarely some plants are glabrous. Stems light green or tan mottled in color. The basal leaves have petioles 0–12(–20) cm long and leaf blades typically 3 or 5-nerved, usually linear or lanceolate, rarely ovate, 5–30 cm long and 0.5–3 cm wide, the margins are normally entire. The flowering stems or peduncles are 20–50 cm long ending with one flower head typically. The flowering "cones" with paleae 9–15 mm long, with the ends red to orange-tipped, usually straight, and prickly-pointed. Ray flower corollas purple colored or rarely pink or white. Discs or cones are ovoid to conic in shape and 25–35 wide and 20–40 mm tall. Disc corollas 4.5–5.5 mm long with lobes greenish to pink or purple. Seed cypselae tan in color and 4–5 mm long with faces finely tuberculate, glabrous. This species has 11 chromosomes.

Echinacea laevigata, the smooth purple coneflower, is a federally listed endangered plant found in the piedmont of the southeastern United States. Its current range is within the states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, although it was historically also found in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Most populations are found on roadsides and other open areas with plenty of sunlight, often on calcium and magnesium rich soils. Unlike other members of the genus Echinacea, it has not been traditionally used as an herbal medicine.

Echinacea pallida, the Pale Purple Cone-flower, is a herbaceous perennial plant from a taproot in the family Asteraceae. Plants are similar to Echinacea angustifolia, but often growing taller, ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 feet (45 to 75 cm) tall but sometimes 3 feet (90 cm) or more high. Plants normally grow with one unbranched stem in the wild but often growing into multi-stemmed clumps when grown in gardens. The deep taproot is spindle shaped, wider in the center and narrowing at the ends. Stems are green in color or mottled with purple and green. The leaves are elongated lanceolate or linear-lanceolate in shape with three veins, and the margins are entire. Flower head rays narrow, linear, elongated, drooping, from 1 to 3 inches (2.5 to 7.6 cm) long. The flower heads are from 0.75 to 3 inches (2 to 7.6 cm) wide with pale rose-purple or nearly white colored petals, the flowers have white pollen. The fruits are called cypselae and are tan or bi-colored, with angled edges.
Native from dry soils in prairies in the USA, from the states of Illinois to Michigan, Alabama and Texas.

Echinacea paradoxa (Bush's purple coneflower, Yellow Coneflower) is a perennial species of flowering plant in the genus Echinacea.

Echinacea purpurea (Eastern purple coneflower) is a species of flowering plant in the genus Echinacea. Recognizable by its purple cone-shaped flowers, it is native to eastern North America and present to some extent in the wild in much of the eastern, southeastern and midwest United States. and often known as the purple coneflower.
Echinacea purpurea is also grown as an ornamental plant, and numerous cultivars have been developed for flower quality and plant form.

Echinacea simulata. Wavy-leaf purple coneflower or Pale purple coneflower is a species of herbaceous plant in family Asteraceae very much like Echinacea pallida except that it has yellow colored pollen grains.

Echinacea tennesseensis (Tennessee coneflower) is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, endemic to the cedar glades of the central portion of the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is also known as the Tennessee purple coneflower. It is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 75 cm tall. The leaves are hairy, lanceolate, and arranged in a basal whorl with only a few small leaves on the flower stems. The flowers are produced in a capitulum (flowerhead) up to 8 cm broad, with a ring of purple ray florets surrounding the brown disc florets.

Echinacea sanguinea

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