Purple cone flowers (Echinacea purpurea) are so very common in gardening and landscaping but I don’t think I’d ever seen them blooming in a prairie remnant until this visit to Horn’s Prairie Grove. Most of the Illinois prairies I’ve visited had only pale purple cone flowers (E. pallida). This place had both. The colors of the purple coneflowers (and grey headed coneflowers) standing in the shade vs those in the sun inspired me to make this study.
