I have E purpura (purple and white), angustifolia, pallida, tennessensis and paradoxa. Once I receive my order for E atrorubens.........are there any more?
Chris
Echinacea varieties
I seem to recall from a talk given by Steven Foster at the SSE convention last year that there are seven of them, Chris, but don't have my references in front of me.
E. purpuea, E.angustifolia, and E. pallida are the ones most commonly used medicinally, with their effectiveness in the order given.
Excellent.
My understanding is that the strongest medicinal is angustifolia with pallida sometimes/often being confused for it. Purpura is most commonly grown but not as effective. All have medicinal value.
Does your source say different?
Chris
Depends what you mean by most effective, Chris.
With purpura the entire plant is medicinal; roots and aerial parts. With augustifolia it's either just the leaves or just the roots, I forget which. And pallida has the lowest levels of active ingredient of the three.
Hello All.
Yesterdays search for clarification on the medicinal value of the different echinaceas turned up some other useful info. Thanks for getting me wondering Brook.
"http://www.stevenfoster.com/education/monograph/echinacea.html
Echinacea is a genus in the aster family. There are nine species of Echinacea. The three species most commonly found in herb products are Echinacea angustifolia, E. purpurea and E. pallida. Other species include two Federally-listed endangered species - E. tennesseensis (obviously from Tennessee), and the rare Appalachian species, E. laevigata. The yellow-flowered E. paradoxa (the paradox of this "purple coneflower" is that it is yellow) and E. simulata (simulating E. pallida), are both native to the Ozarks of Arkansas and Missouri. Other unusual species include E. atrorubens, which occurs in eastern Kansas and Oklahoma, and E. sanguinea, which occurs in Louisiana and eastern Texas, with one population in southwestern Arkansas"
E. laevigata, E. simulata, E. sanguinea are still out there for me to find.
Yippee
Chris