Echinacea, commonly Known as Purple Coneflower or sometimes Black Sampson, is a perennial belonging to the aster family and grows 2-3 feet high with a single stout bristly hair stem. The leaves are roughly 8 inches long, narrowing towards the ends. They tend to be thick deeply veined, and rough and hairy. The single flower blooms from July to October.

At one time, the untouched meadows that covered much of America, were carpeted with Purple Coneflower. The Native Americans were wise to its medicinal abilities, and used it for snakebites, fevers, and infections.  Echinacea was probably used for more conditions than any other herb...as an antidote for snake and bee bites, as a remedy for headaches, toothaches, swollen glands, and for distemper in horses. It is said that it was used by magicians to make their hands insensitive to boiling heat and was also used to relieve the pain from burns. The early settlers soon learned to use it for a large variety of internal and external infections.

Scientific research has now confirmed what herbalists have now known for generations...The Purple Coneflower, especially the two varieties: Echinacea Purpurea, which has larger darker purple leaves, and Echinacea Angustifolia, which has narrower, paler leaves, seem to have an affinity for helping us two-legged creatures deal with a host of internal and external physical problems. The part of the plant that contains most of the medicinal value is the root, and the Augustifolia root is somewhat medicinally stronger than the Purpurea root.

Although the vast meadows of wild Purple Coneflower, with its wonderful auburn-colored rounded center cone that is so attractive to wild birds and butterflies, have sadly diminished, the flower is an easy perennial to grow in most parts of the United States, with needs and habits similar to Black-Eyed Susans.