Echinacea paradoxa

Description

Echinacea paradoxa is a perennial herb up to 90 cm tall with multiple, slightly hairy stems arising from the rootstock. Most of the leaves are basal leaves with smooth margins. They are alternate, becoming shorter higher up on the stem, and they are completely absent on the upper two-thirds of the stem. The basal leaves are 8-45 cm long and narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, and the stem leaves are 4-35 cm long and linear to narrowly elliptic or narrowly lanceolate.

One plant can produce several flower heads, each with white, pink, or yellow ray florets surrounding a central head of numerous disk florets. Each flower head is about 2-2.5 in across. The central head is dome-shaped and dark reddish brown to nearly black. It is prickly to the touch. It blooms in May and June.

Taxonomy

;Varieties

• Echinacea paradoxa var. paradoxa - yellow rays - Arkansas and Missouri - yellow coneflower or Ozark coneflower
• Echinacea paradoxa var.neglecta - pink or white rays Oklahoma and Texas - Bush's purple coneflower

Echinacea paradoxa var. paradoxa has a baseline chromosome number of x = 11, like most Echinacea plants.

Distribution and habitat

Echinacea paradoxa var. paradoxa, or yellow coneflower, is endemic to the Ozarks of Missouri and Arkansas. It is listed as imperiled in Arkansas.

Echinacea paradoxa var. neglecta, or Bush's purple coneflower, is currently only known to exist in the wild in the Arbuckle Mountains region of southeastern Oklahoma. One isolated population was reported from Montgomery County in eastern Texas. It is listed as critically imperiled in Oklahoma and presumed extirpated in Texas.

Habitats include partially sunny to sunny savannas, glades, limestone outcroppings, barrens, open hillsides, and bald knobs.

Gallery

Image:Echinacea.paradoxa01.jpg|Illustration Image:Yellow Coneflower Echinacea paradoxa Horizontal 3008px.jpg|Flower Image:Echinacea paradoxa - yellow coneflower - desc-flower from above.jpg|Flower from above Image:Yellow Coneflower Echinacea paradoxa Single Flower Bee 1895px.jpg|Flower and a bee Image:Yellow Coneflower Echinacea paradoxa Closeup Bee 3008px.jpg|Flower closeup with a bee

References

References

1. "Echinacea paradoxa Britton".
2. "Echinacea paradoxa - Plant Finder".
3. [https://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=ECPA2 ''Echinacea paradoxa''] United States Department of Agriculture plants profile
4. "Ozark Coneflower (Echinacea paradoxa paradoxa)".
5. [http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=250068265 Flora of North America, ''Echinacea paradoxa'' (Norton) Britton ]
6. "Echinacea paradoxa page".
7. [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/812393#page/484/mode/1up Britton, Nathaniel Lord & Brown, Addison 1913. illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British possessions : from Newfoundland to the parallel of the southern boundary of Virginia, and from the Atlantic Ocean westward to the 102d meridian 3: 476] description in English plus lline drawing
8. [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/5712994#page/102/mode/1up Norton, John Bitting Smith 1902. Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis 12(4): 40–41] description and commentary in English, as ''Brauneria paradoxa''
9. [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/5712994#page/102/mode/1up Norton, John Bitting Smith 1902. Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis 12(4): plate VIII (8)] line drawing of ''Echinacea paradoxa'' as ''Brauneria paradoxa''
10. Smith, E. B., P. E. Hyatt, and K. Golden. 1992. Documented chromosome numbers 1992: 1. Chromosome numbers of some Arkansas flowering plants. Sida 15:145–146.
11. "NatureServe Explorer 2.0".
12. "NatureServe Explorer 2.0".