Purple coneflower
Ornamental and medicinal perennial with long-lasting flower heads through summer; offers honey bees moderate nectar and pollen.
- Nectar
- Medium
- Pollen
- Medium
- Flowering
- JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
- Height
- 0,6-1,2 m
- Life cycle
- Perennial
🐝 Add to my apiary
Log in to add it to your apiary.Value for beekeeping
Purple coneflower is a perennial from the North American prairies, grown in gardens and medicinal herb fields. The disc florets in its orange-brown, cone-shaped centre open in sequence over several weeks, so a single head offers nectar and pollen for a long time. Honey bees visit moderately; bumblebees and butterflies make more intensive use of it.
Flowering
It stays in flower from July to September, for about 8-10 weeks.
Honey and pollen
There is no monofloral honey; where it is grown, it is a small component of mixed summer honey.
Note for the beekeeper
In areas where echinacea is grown on a field scale it forms an extra source for midsummer. It tolerates dry spells, but on irrigated plots flowering lasts longer. In gardens, single forms close to the wild type should be preferred over hybrid and double varieties.