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Introduction

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Purple Coneflower, or Echinacea, is a beautiful wildflower that has some great benefits too. I am certainly not against growing flowers just for the sake of growing flowers, and even once wrapped our entire house and garage in a three foot wide perimeter of perennials, just to bless my wife. The increase of pollinators that they brought to our yard and garden and the constant supply of flowers for floral arrangements in vases on the dining room table were certainly a reward enough, besides the amazing look of them when anyone would drive past our old house.

However, if there is something more that a flower can provide, it just makes the flower that much more valuable of a resource for my family and me. Often, the space that can be designated to plants is limited, so making wise choices about which plant goes where and for what purpose it’s planted can be very important.

Echinacea is won of those wonderful, multipurpose flowers that can be found growing in many flowerbeds and gardens, yet it is still reproducing itself quite well in the wild as well. The photos for this post were taken in two locations. Some were snapped at a beautiful homestead that was also home to some great peach tree and a wonderful flowerbed full of butterflies, cosmos, and zinnias. The other Echinacea plant was a lone flower in the ditch, surrounded by a sea of Chicory.

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Uses

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The plant itself has been used medicinally for at least hundreds of years. The most common use is as a preventative against colds and the flu, and is boasted to be a great herbal option for boosting the immune system. As it seems is always the case, reports vary and results are often in opposition to one another.

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Differences of Opinion

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The "scientific, medical community" often will publish the results from their research which concludes that many natural remedies have *no scientific proof of their effectiveness or validity. Yet, many of the organic and natural groups will testify to the "proven results" of using such plants as Echinacea. Are these just cases of a placebo effect, or is there a much deeper war being waged on our health?

Personally, I think that we would all do well to do our own research and draw our own conclusions. Whatever I mention should also be understood as my opinion on the matter based on my experience, and not as authoritative fact. So, in my opinion, I think that Echinacea is a great plant with a purpose and that it is indeed a helpful herb.

It is my current belief that Echinacea can boost the immune system, and may have other health benefits as well. I've enjoyed using it as a tea in previous years as a preventative during cold and flu season. Also, I've never had any side effects or negative reactions to it that I am aware of.

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Propagation

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Personally, I plan on always having some growing around the property. We had some at our old house in Wisconsin (which should still be growing there) and I've got some started down here. There is a lot of Echinacea growing wild too, but please be aware that many wildflowers are protected in many areas. For this reason I would not recommend attempting to uproot wild plants that you find. I'd just obtain some seeds and get your own patch growing.

Since it is a perennial, it should keep coming back for years to come.

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To check out the previous posts in this series, please click below:

Helpful Herbs & Plants With a Purpose : MULLEIN

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As always, I'm @papa-pepper, and here's the proof:

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