Glade coneflower is one of Missouri’s five species of Echinacea. It is distinguished by its yellow pollen, drooping pink or purple ray flowers, and narrow, tapering leaves.
Glade coneflower is a showy native perennial wildflower with an unbranching stem arising from basal leaves, with a single, sunflower-like flowerhead.
The basal leaves are in a clump, are strap-shaped, and are up to 12 inches long including the long stalks; the stem leaves are shorter and lack stalks. The stems and leaves have stiff, spreading hairs.
The flowerhead disk is knoblike, with yellow stamens protruding; the petal like ray flowers are rose-colored and somewhat drooping, 1½–3½ inches long. As with other Echinacea species, the disk flowers have spiny bracts. The pollen is yellow (it looks like small crumbs amid the spiky disk bracts).
Blooms May–July.
The seedlike fruits are in a burrlike, dome-shaped head that blackens upon drying. The fruits are achenes (structurally similar to sunflower "seeds"), wedge-shaped, angled, slightly flattened, tan to nearly white.
Similar species: Five species of coneflowers (Echinacea) are recorded growing wild in Missouri.
- The most similar coneflower that you are most likely to see is pale purple coneflower (E. pallida). Like glade coneflower, it has pinkish-purple ray flowers that are narrow and drooping. But pale purple coneflower has white, not yellow pollen, and it is scattered statewide, with a more western range than glade coneflower (which occurs mainly in the eastern Ozarks).
- Purple coneflower (E. purpurea) is widespread in nature and very popular in cultivation. Its ray flowers are pinkish purple but are shorter and wider, and are more spreading than drooping.
- Yellow coneflower (E. paradoxa), with its yellow rays, is easy to identify by its different color.
- Narrow-leaved coneflower (E. angustifolia) is rare in Missouri and has only been recorded sporadically over the decades. It is very similar to glade coneflower, but the rays are only about half as long and are more spreading, less drooping; its pollen is yellow. It is a Great Plains species, but in 2014, it was finally located in Missouri, in a native loess hill prairie in the northwest corner of the state. It is ranked as critically imperiled in Missouri.
Height: to 3 feet.
Eastern and central Ozarks.
Habitat and Conservation
Occurs in glades, tops of bluffs, savannas, edges and openings of dry upland forests, ditches, and roadsides.
Like other showy coneflowers, it is a favorite of native plant and butterfly gardeners.
Status
Native Missouri perennial wildflower. Increasingly popular in landscaping.
Human Connections
This and other Missouri species of Echinacea are threatened by harvest for the medicinal herb market. Coneflowers are often targeted by unscrupulous root collectors who sell them to manufacturers of herbal medicines. Such vandalism is one reason laws were enacted restricting the collecting of plants from Missouri's wild plant communities.
The rootstocks are commercially important as a source of herbal medicines. Echinacea is used mainly for treating the common cold, but researchers debate its efficacy.
Ecosystem Connections
The seeds of coneflowers are eaten by American goldfinches, whose unusual, late-summer breeding (and chick-feeding) time corresponds with the abundant seed set of these and other sunflower-family flowers such as goldenrods, ironweeds, and others.
