Which species of Echinacea is being "wild-crafted?"

[dwheeler at teleport.com]

In article <1998081221414500.RAA05507 at ladder03.news.aol.com>,
  susan112 at aol.com (Susan112) wrote:
> There's I think 17 species of Echinacea in my state, but the one's I've heard
> the most of in terms of illegal root digging are pale purple coneflower and
> purple coneflower...forgive my bad latin but I think it's E. purpurea and E.
> augustifolia.
>
> Susan
>

While the original post didn't indicate, I believe it is _probably_ E.
purpurea. Most of the pharmacological data seems based on that species.

I doubt that wildcrafters are necessarily choosing one species or another.
And if the plant is pulled before seed sets, there would be little
regeneration and a corresponding loss of genetic diversity.

Daniel B. Wheeler
http://www.oregonwhitetruffles.com

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