Plant of the month: Upright prairie coneflower (Ratibida columnifera)
The upright prairie coneflower is also commonly referred to as mexican hat or long-head coneflower. It is scientifically referred to as Ratibida columnifera. The species name columnifera means column, as these flowers have long, cylindrical center disks. Prairie coneflowers belong to the Asteraceae family (which you tell as it has a center disk made up of many individual flowers growing together) and is found throughout North America, from Canada to Mexico. It can be found and is native in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Saskatchewan.
To identify the prairie coneflower look for a tall center cone (2 inches) surrounded by 3 to 11 drooping yellow petals that each contain a notch at their ends. The flowers are found at the end of an erect stem that can be up to 3 feet tall. The leaves are pinnately lobed, with each leaf having 5 to 11 lobed. The leaves are blue-green in colour. The prairie cornflower typically grows in groups of itself.
In Calgary it blooms in the late summer. Prairie coneflowers can be planted in the fall or in the spring if they have undergone stratified cold treatment. They are drought tolerant and prefer sunny and dry conditions.
The bright yellow colour is attractive to pollinators including skippers, checkered beetles, miner bees, bumblebees, honey bees and other bees. In addition to the benefits for pollinators, the prairie coneflowers also have medicinal benefits. The medicinal benefits include treating poison ivy rashes, headaches, stomach aches and fevers. It has also been used to extract snake poison by the Cheyenne, who boiled the leaves and stems then applied the solution to the bite.
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