Yellow coneflower is the only coneflower with yellow ray flowers, not pink or purplish ones, which explains the species name, paradoxa. Although cultivated statewide, this prairie and glade wildflower grows natively only in the Ozarks.
Yellow coneflower is a perennial wildflower with an unbranched stem arising from basal leaves, with a single flowerhead.
The basal leaves are in a clump, strap-shaped, up to 8 inches long including their stalks. The stem leaves are shorter and lack stalks.
The flowerhead is at the tip of the plant stem. Its central disk is strongly rounded to conical. The disk flowers have purplish brown, stiff, spiny bracts. The petal-like ray flowers are drooping, yellow, 1½–3½ inches long, and notched at the tips.
The fruits develop in the burlike, dome-shaped head; they blacken on drying.
Similar species: Our other coneflowers (genus Echinacea) all have ray flowers that are pink or purplish pink. This is the only one with yellow ray flowers; this curious trait explains the species name, paradoxa.
- Yellow coneflower can hybridize with other coneflowers. These natural hybrids usually have mottled or variegated ray flowers that can be a mix of pink and purple or may be orangish. Look for these in sites where yellow coneflower grows nearby the other species.
- At garden centers, you may see coneflower hybrids or other cultivars with yellow ray flowers, too.
- A very close relative, Bush's purple coneflower (Echinacea paradoxa var. neglecta), is a sister subspecies of yellow coneflower. It is very rare and does not occur in Missouri; its home range is only in portions of Oklahoma and Texas. Its ray flowers are pink to purple (rarely white).
- Gray-headed coneflower has yellow ray florets, but it is in a different genus (Ratibida); its "disk" is an inch-long, round knob that starts off gray, then turns brown; its disk flowers lack the stiff spiny bracts that identify "true" coneflowers in genus Echinacea.
- Missouri coneflower, or Missouri black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia missouriensis), despite its common name, is not a "true" coneflower (genus Echinacea). It is closely related to black-eyed Susan, and its rounded disks are smooth, not spiny.
Height: to 3 feet.
Scattered mostly in the western half of the Ozarks and Ozark Border regions. Cultivated statewide.
Habitat and Conservation
Grows in limestone and dolomite glades, balds, upland prairies, and savannas; also along roadsides.
This species is nearly endemic to the Ozarks; that is, it occurs naturally only in the Ozarks and no where else in the world.
Like other members of its genus, yellow coneflower is targeted by root collectors who vandalize high-quality glades and prairies in public lands so they can sell the roots.
Status
Native Missouri wildflower. Occurs naturally only in the Ozarks in Missouri and Arkansas. It is listed as imperiled in Arkansas.
Human Connections
Missouri's coneflowers are threatened by harvest for the medicinal herb market. Although coneflowers are easily cultivated, illegal and unethical root digging continues despite decades of studies failing to prove that echinacea supplements are medicinally effective.
Ecosystem Connections
As with other coneflowers, the flowers of this species are attractive to bees, butterflies, and other insects.
Late in the season and continuing through winter, finches eat the seeds from the spiny-looking, spent flowerheads.
Rodents eat seeds that fall to the ground.
