Tennessee purple coneflower

Brauneria tennesseensis Beadle, Bot. Gaz. 25: 359. 1898; Echinacea pallida (Nuttall) Nuttall var. tennesseensis (Beadle) Binns, B. R. Baum & Arnason

Plants to 50 cm (roots elongate-turbinate, branched). Herbage sparsely to densely hairy (indument relatively soft, hairs spreading, to 2+ mm). Stems yellowish green becoming tan. Basal leaves: petioles 2–10 cm; blades 1- or 3-nerved, linear to lanceolate, 6–12 × 0.7–1.5 cm, bases attenuate, margins entire (usually ciliate). Peduncles 8–25+ cm. Phyllaries lanceolate to ovate, 5–10 × 1.5–2.5 mm. Receptacles: paleae 9–12 mm, tips purple, 2–3 mm, often incurved, rounded to acute. Ray corollas pink to purplish, laminae spreading to reflexed, 20–40 × 3–4 mm, moderately hairy abaxially. Discs conic, 10–25 × 15–25 mm. Disc corollas 5.5–6.5 mm, lobes usually purple. Cypselae tan, 4–5 mm, faces smooth, glabrous; pappi to ca. 1.2 mm (major teeth 0–4). 2n = 22.

Flowering in summer. Dry, rocky hills, barrens; of conservation concern; 100–200 m; Tenn.

Echinacea tennesseensis is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants.

SELECTED REFERENCE

Drew, M. B. and E. C. Clebsch. 1995. Studies on the endangered Echinacea tennesseensis (Asteraceae): Plant community and demographic analysis. Castanea 60: 60–69.