Echinacea paradoxa - Coneflower

A fragrant yellow Echinacea, of rare beauty, with a long and abundant golden yellow summer flowering! This tall perennial forms a beautiful bushy clump carrying long stems with narrow green leaves and splendid flowers with downward curved petals, adorned with a chocolate-brown cone-shaped heart. A splendid contrast!

Echinacea paradoxa or Yellow Coneflower, belonging to the Asteraceae family, is native to North America, where it is found in the wild in clearings and meadows in the states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. This Echinacea is a herbaceous perennial plant measuring up to 90cm (35in) tall with a spread of about fifty centimetres. The paradox of this Echinacea is that it presents yellow flowers instead of the usual purple or pink flowers for the genus. It produces long rigid stems on which, from June to August, large golden yellow flowers, 10cm (4in) in diameter, resembling daisies, but with trailing petals and a prominent cone-shaped centre, chocolate-brown in colour, bloom. Its deciduous foliage is composed of long, smooth, lanceolate, medium green leaves. Honey-bearing and fragrant, this yellow Echinacea attracts numerous pollinating insects, such as bees and butterflies. If the stems and faded flowers are not cut, but left in place, the dried cones will decorate the garden during the dormant season, and birds will be able to feed on the seeds during winter.

The term Echinacea comes from the Greek word Echinos, meaning Hedgehog, in reference to the bristly seed cones of these plants.

Echinacea is a medicinal plant used in homeopathy as a short-term immune stimulant to prevent infections.
This plant was also known to Native Americans who used its leaves to fight rheumatism and certain childhood diseases, and its roots to treat burns and toothaches.

Yellow Echinacea should be planted in full sun, in well-drained ordinary soil, with a planting distance of 40cm (16in). It will integrate perfectly into a wild-looking garden as well as in perennial scenes and summer flowering beds, which it will enhance with its beautiful golden yellow colour. It will be the perfect companion for other varieties of Echinacea, as well as Garden Irises, Coquelourde, Globe Thistles, Large-flowered Fleabanes, Everlastings, Indigo Lupins, as well as Sneezeweed. Echinacea is, of course, perfectly suited for cut flowers as well as dried flowers, with its bristly cones being particularly graphic. For this, allow the flowers to mature on the plant and fade, then harvest them and hang them upside down in a well-ventilated and dry place to dry.