Flower Talk Mondays

Today's flower is the Purple Coneflower (#1), also known as Echinacea purpurea. It is a hearty, drought tolerant perennial (lives for more than 2 years) that’s native to the Midwest. The genus name Echinacea, is from the Greek echino meaning hedgehog, an allusion to the flower’s coned center. The flower’s rough scattered leaves climb the stem to unveil soft lavender and purple petals that encircle a red-orange coned center. The Purple Coneflower prefers full sun to partial shade, blooms from June-October and grows to be 2-3 feet tall. The flower’s soil condition is dry and reseeds easily, making it a great candidate for the urban prairie of Detroit. Bees, butterflies and skippers are attracted to this colorful native wildflower. The urban prairie becomes a great teaching tool to learn about nature’s ecosystems, what our relationship to the earth is, and how we can model communities after nature. So with this I ask, can the urban prairie teach us how to design human communities that support nature’s inherent ability to sustain life?

Monday Schedule