Backyard Medicine: Purple Coneflower

Yesterday, I posted about the medicinal uses of yarrow, a common garden plant. Today, I want to talk about the coneflower, Echinacea purpurea. In the wild, coneflowers are found in eastern North America, although they have been widely introduced. They produce beautiful flowers, available in many varieties but purple in the wild, and the center of each flower is made up of a spin cone-shaped structure.