Species
+

Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench

Eastern Purple Coneflower, Eastern purple coneflower (EN), Purple Coneflower, Purpurpura Piramide de fuj

Climate known 79 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Echinacea purpurea, the eastern purple coneflower, purple coneflower, hedgehog coneflower, or Echinacea, is a North American species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to parts of eastern North America and present to some extent in the wild in much of the eastern, southeastern and midwestern United States, as well as in the Canadian Province of Ontario. It is most common in the Ozarks, the Mississippi Valley, and the Ohio Valley. Its habitats include dry open woods, prairies, and barrens.

Text from Wikipedia, “Echinacea purpurea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Echinacea

Echinacea [ek-in-NAY-shee-a] is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants in the daisy family. It has ten species, which are commonly called coneflowers. They are native only in eastern and central North America, where they grow in wet to dry prairies and open wooded areas. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Echinacea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
(L.) Moench
Native to
Colorado, Illinois, Iowa +21
Wild records
1573 in range· 210 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jul, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1082mm/yr
12 wet months · peak May 112 mm (CHELSA)
Light
11–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to November in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1082 mm a year, wettest May at 112 mm, driest February at 63 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -18.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Brauneria purpurea (L.) Britton; Echinacea intermedia Lindl.; Echinacea intermedia Lindl. ex Paxton; Echinacea purpurea f. ligettii Steyerm.; Echinacea purpurea f. purpurea and 23 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to November in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (789 mm of 1082 mm) takes 8 months, April to November. Mean temperature moves 25.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to May.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1082 mm a year, wettest May at 112 mm, driest February at 63 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1082 mm a year at the habitat, 789 mm of it April to November. Wettest month May at 112 mm, driest February at 63 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 915 mm to 1325 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 9, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -18.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -18.2 °C, the absolute minimum -31.0 °C, about 122 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -5.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells -10.5 °C to -0.9 °C), warmest day 28.3 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -18.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 60% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 2 °C in Jan to 28 °C in Jul; mean night from -6 °C in Jan to 19 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1082 mm of rain a year, most in May. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1007 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -31.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-20°20°40°frost33.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-31.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 11–40RH 56–60 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1007 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C2 / -2–84 / -0–1110 / 5–1616 / 12–2022 / 18–2526 / 23–2928 / 26–3128 / 25–3124 / 21–2717 / 14–2111 / 7–154 / 0–9
Night °C-6 / -11–-1-5 / -8–1-0 / -4–56 / 3–1011 / 9–1517 / 15–1919 / 17–2219 / 17–2115 / 13–179 / 7–123 / 0–6-3 / -7–1
Rain mm69 / 38–9463 / 39–9383 / 54–11397 / 81–117112 / 93–140109 / 96–129110 / 93–12898 / 81–11893 / 77–11684 / 70–11386 / 66–11178 / 48–112
DLI13 / 11–1619 / 18–2126 / 25–2833 / 32–3537 / 36–3840 / 39–4140 / 38–4135 / 33–3728 / 26–3121 / 18–2414 / 11–1711 / 9–14
RH %60 / 57–6358 / 56–6157 / 55–5956 / 55–5757 / 56–5958 / 57–6058 / 57–6059 / 57–6158 / 57–6057 / 56–6059 / 57–6060 / 57–63

Each figure is the median across the 1007 grid cells holding the 1295 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1001:1878 (39.925, -86.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -31.0 °C, 1st-percentile night -18.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1007 distinct grid cells holding the 1295 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1001:1878 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 40.00_-86.250, lapse-corrected -29 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 230 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeColorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia· introduced: Austria, Germany, Poland, France, Baltic States, Krym, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, Korea, Myanmar, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Ontario, Delaware, Maryland, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Bolivia
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker42.229, -87.938 · in the densest population, 962 records (61% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1573 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 210 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 391 km away. 293 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 278 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1573 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Echinacea purpureaEchinacea purpureaEchinacea purpureaEchinacea purpureaEchinacea purpureaEchinacea purpureaEchinacea purpureaEchinacea purpurea

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (6); (c) Zachary Dankowicz, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Sandy Wolkenberg, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Echinacea purpurea, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Herbal Remedies in the United States: Potential Adverse Interactions With Anticancer Agents
Alex Sparreboom, Michael C. Cox, Milin Acharya, William D. Figg (2004) · Journal of Clinical Oncology
Echinacea for preventing and treating the common cold
Marlies Karsch-Völk, Bruce Barrett, David Kiefer, Rudolf Bauer (2014) · Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
Modulation of cytokine expression by traditional medicines: a review of herbal immunomodulators.
Kevin Spelman, J.J. Burns, Douglas J. Nichols, Nasha Winters (2006) · PubMed
COVID-19: Is There Evidence for the Use of Herbal Medicines as Adjuvant Symptomatic Therapy?
Dâmaris Silveira, Jose Maria Prieto-Garcia, Fábio Boylan, Omar Eduardo Sánchez Estrada (2020) · Frontiers in Pharmacology
Macrophage Activation by the Polysaccharide Arabinogalactan Isolated From Plant Cell Cultures of Echinacea purpurea
Birgit Luettig, Christiane Steinmüller, George E. Gifford, Hildebert Wagner (1989) · JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute
Echinacea purpurea: Pharmacology, phytochemistry and analysis methods
Soodabeh Saeidnia, Azadeh Manayi, Mahdi Vazirian (2015) · Pharmacognosy Reviews/Bioinformatics Trends/Pharmacognosy review
Efficacy and Safety of Echinacea in Treating Upper Respiratory Tract Infections in Children
James A. Taylor, Wendy Weber, Leanna J. Standish, Hal C. Quinn (2003) · JAMA
In vivo assessment of botanical supplementation on human cytochrome P450 phenotypes: , , milk thistle, and saw palmetto
Bill J. Gurley, Stephen D. Gardner, Martha A. Hubbard, D WILLIAMS (2004) · Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Echinacea 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 59 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.