Prairie Coneflower
Ratibida columnifera
Bird foodPollinator plant

(c) Meghan Cassidy, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), uploaded by Meghan Cassidy
Growing it
| When | Flowers June to August |
|---|---|
| Type | wildflower |
| Sun | Full sun |
| Water | Low |
| Soil | pH 6–8.5 |
| Hardiness | zone 3–8 |
| Mature height | 0.5 m |
| Mature spread | 0.45 m |
| Spacing | 0.3 m |
| Years to maturity | 1 |
| Bloom | Jun–Aug |
| Flower colour | Purple read from a published flora |
| In bloom | June July August |
| Native to | AB, SK |
Where it has been recorded
Which ecoregions the records fall in
- Mixed Grassland south AB / SK: 406 records, high confidence
- Moist Mixed Grassland south AB / SK: 394 records, high confidence
- Fescue Grassland south AB: 262 records, high confidence
- Aspen Parkland central AB / SK: 63 records, high confidence
- Cypress Upland south AB / SK: 46 records, high confidence
These are counts of records collected somewhere in the region, which is the resolution of the evidence: the map above shows where inside it. A region with 3 records is not the same claim as one with three hundred, so the count travels with the region. A region missing from this list means nobody has recorded it there, which is not the same as the plant being absent. Records within 900 m of a border count for neither side, because the border is not drawn finely enough to say which one they are on. Source: GBIF occurrence search + PRESERVED_SPECIMEN pass, retrieved 2026-08-24. Boundaries digitised from the National Ecological Framework for Canada v2.2 (Ecological Stratification Working Group 1995), simplified to about 900 m for display: an outline is accurate to roughly a kilometre, not to the metre. How these counts are made.
See every observation, live and current, on GBIF or iNaturalist.
Documented animals
29 documented relationships.
nectar for
- Agapostemon texanus Specimen records from ecdysis.org
- Bicoloured Sweat Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
- Brown-belted Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
- Calligrapher Fly Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
- Common Checkered-Skipper Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
- Danaus gilippus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
- Euodynerus hidalgo Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
- Golden Northern Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
- Half-black Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
- Halictus ligatus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
- Helophilus latifrons Clint Otto et al. 2020
- Megachile onobrychidis Specimen records from ecdysis.org
- Megachile parallela Specimen records from ecdysis.org
- Megachile perihirta Specimen records from ecdysis.org
- Melanoplus bivittatus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
- Melissa Blue Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
- Melissodes bimaculatus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
- Melissodes communis Specimen records from ecdysis.org
- Melissodes trinodis Clint Otto et al. 2020
- Osmia bruneri Specimen records from ecdysis.org
- Pearl Crescent Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
- Peck's Skipper Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
- Philanthus ventilabris Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
- Red-belted Bumble Bee Specimen records from www.bumblebeewatch.org
- Scaeva affinis Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
- Syrphus torvus Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
- Tricoloured Bumble Bee Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
- Variegated Fritillary Specimen records from iNaturalist.org
- White-lined Sphinx Acorn & Sheldon 2006
Also worth knowing
Safety
Toxicity not assessed, absence of a warning is not a guarantee of safety
Buying it
About $8–$16 per plant (estimate), usually stocked by garden centres. Estimate (herb default); AB retail as of 2026
Where these numbers came from
- Flower detail: not verified, a genus-level estimate