Echinacea (Coneflower)
The coneflowers (Echinacea) are starting to come into bloom in our back yard. This one is opening up but hasn’t begun to get the orange colors that characterize the flowers when fully open. Each of the little rods in this flower head, forming the wonderful spirals that characterize many of this sort of flower, is actually a separate flower bud. The flowers themselves are quite small and the petals around the outside have only just started to grow in this flower head but will soon begin to turn a light purplish pink.