When flowering, Echinacea pallida (pictured above) is readily distinguished from E. angustifolia by its white pollen, large heads, and long, droopy ray florets.
Description:
Echinacea pallida is a close relative of Echinacea angustifolia that is native to eastern tallgrass prairie regions from Illinois to Iowa, but not Minnesota. The non-native species is present in our study site at a restoration plot in the Hegg Lake WMA. Experiments done by Team Echinacea have showed that E. angustifolia and E. pallida are compatible, meaning that hybridization is possible. However, whether hybridization events occur depends on the synchrony and proximity of individuals of the two species. For that reason, we are interested in the timing of flowering, or phenology, of Echinacea pallida. We keep track of the start and end dates of flowering for E. pallida individuals in the Hegg WMA restoration.
Start year: 2011
Location: Hegg Lake WMA
Products: In fall of 2013, externs from Carleton College, Aaron and Grace, investigated potential hybridization by analyzing the phenology and seed set of Echinacea pallida and neighboring Echinacea angustifolia that Dayvis collected in summer 2013. They wrote a report of their study.
Overlaps with: Echinacea hybrids (exPt6, exPt7, exPt9), flowering phenology in remnants
Link to flog posts: Read updates about this experiment as written by members of Team Echinacea.
