| Author | (Boynton & Beadle) S.F. Blake | |
| Distribution | Central and eastern Piedmont only. The large gap between north and south is certainly real, as botanists have heavily searched for this rare-listed plant.
Piedmont and Mountains, west-central VA to northeastern GA; disjunct to PA. Records from outside this area are suspect and could be escapes from cultivation. | |
| Abundance | Rare and declining, but a few populations are large. This is a Federal and State Threatened species, down-listed from Endangered status a year or two ago. | |
| Habitat | Dry mafic soils of barrens, glades, and open woodlands. Populations need canopy reduction in order to be viable, especially by fire. |
| Phenology | Flowering and fruiting late May-July, flowering mainly from late May to mid-June. All our purple coneflowers have been cultivated for medicinal purposes. | |
| Identification | Plants grow 1.5-3 feet tall, are glabrous, and somewhat glaucescent. Leaves are lance-ovate to elliptic, 4-6 inches long and toothed on the margins. The terminal heads have long, drooping, dark pink rays and a dull brownish yellow disk that becomes dome-shaped in age. The smooth upper surface of the leaves separates it from E. purpurea and E. pallida. Needless to say, when populations of this species are in full bloom, the sight is highly memorable. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | Some authors have treated it as a variety of Eastern Purple Coneflower (E. purpurea), though nearly all now consider it as a valid species.
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| Other Common Name(s) | Smooth Coneflower. This name, often used, is to be avoided, as members of the genus Rudbeckia are generally named as "xxxxx Coneflower". Echinacea species should be referred to as "xxxx Purple Coneflower". | |
| State Rank | S1S2 | |
| Global Rank | G2G3 | |
| State Status | T | |
| US Status | LT | |
| USACE-agcp | | |
| USACE-emp | | |
