Pale Purple Coneflower

Echinacea pallida is generally regarded as introduced in Connecticut, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, and Virginia.

Plants to 140 cm (roots fusiform to narrowly turbinate, usually branched). Herbage sparsely to densely hairy (hairs spreading, ca. 1.5–1.7 mm). Stems green to purplish (rarely branched). Basal leaves: petioles 5–20+ cm; blades (1-), 3-, or 5-nerved, elliptic to lanceolate, 12–40 × 1–4 cm, bases cuneate to attenuate, margins entire (usually ciliate). Peduncles 15–50 cm. Phyllaries lanceolate to ovate, 7–15 × 1–3 mm. Receptacles: paleae 9–14 mm, tips purple, usually incurved, sharp-pointed. Ray corollas pink to reddish purple, laminae reflexed, 40–90 × 3–4 mm, sparsely hairy abaxially. Discs conic to hemispheric, 20–40 × 25–37 mm. Disc corollas 5.5–6.7 mm, lobes usually pink to purple (pollen usually white, rarely lemon yellow). Cypselae tan or bicolored, 2.5–5 mm, faces ± smooth, usually glabrous; pappi to ca. 1 mm (major teeth 0–4). 2n = 22.

Rudbeckia pallida Nuttall, J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 7: 77. 1834