Coneflower + Honeybee

Its other well known name Echinacea comes from the Greek word echinos, meaning hedgehog or sea-urchin, in reference to the spiny center cone found on most flowers in the genus. The perennial rhizomous plant can get 11 to nearly 60 inches tall. Flowers are rayed and purple, with the center disc florets orange, drawing all kinds of pollinators. Other types of coneflower are pictured here as well, often growing together in open prairie grasslands. These are a high-value plant to pollinators for nectar and pollen.

You’ve likely partnered with this flower already to fight a cold virus. It is known to support immune function, and was used for a variety of ailments by Indigenous people for hundreds of years. European settlers reportedly used it to treat then common outbreaks of disease like Scarlet Fever, Diphtheria, and Syphilis. Hence, they’re symbolic of strength and healing.

Coneflower is accompanied by honey bee, a VIP of the pollinator sector. From National Geographic: “Honeybees are important pollinators for flowers, fruits, and vegetables. They live on stored honey and pollen all winter and cluster into a ball to conserve warmth. All honeybees are social and cooperative insects. Members of the hive are divided into three types. Workers forage for food (pollen and nectar from flowers), build and protect the hive, clean, and circulate air by beating their wings. The queen’s job is simple—she lays the eggs that will spawn the hive’s next generation of bees. There is usually only a single queen in a hive. If the queen dies, workers will create a new queen by feeding one of the worker females a special food called “royal jelly.” This elixir enables the worker to develop into a fertile queen.”

Original mixed media on raw stretched canvas with maple float frame.