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What do "small," "medium" and "large" numbers mean?
They refer to how many insects were collected per meter square in a 30 second sample. Small means less than 2 insects; medium indicates 2 to 10 insects, and large suggests greater than 10 insects.
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home> native plant fact sheets> pinnate prairie coneflower
Enhancing Beneficial Insects with Native Plants
Pinnate prairie coneflower/ Yellow coneflower
Ratibida pinnata (Vent.) Barnh.
Group: Dicot
Family: Asteraceae (aster)
Growth Habit: Forb/herb
Duration: Perennial
U.S. Nativity: Native
Natural Enemies Attracted: Medium numbers of Chalcidoidea, Orius insidiousus, and
Thomisidae.
Small numbers of Empididae, Syrphidae, Salticidae, Nabidae, Dolichopodidae, Chlamydatus associatus, Aeolothripidae, Chrysopidae, Braconidae, Cynipoidea and Plagiognathus politus.
Pests Attracted: Large numbers of lygus bugs. Medium numbers of leafhoppers. Small numbers of thrips, leaf beetles, Japanese beetles, aphids, froghoppers and tephritid fruit flies.
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| Bees attracted: Moderate numbers (between 1-5 bees per meter square in a 30 second sample) of bees including sweat bees, digger bees, cuckoo bees, small and large carpenter bees, and bumble bees.
Species Notes: Flowers have yellow petals (ray flowers) that stretch below the dark flower center on stalks 3-5 ft tall. This species bloomed from late July through mid August. Some individual plants established well, others didn’t; plants filled in completely by the second season in the field, with thin, pinnate leaves on the plant. This species was the fourth most attractive mid season plants, with more than two times more natural enemies than in the grass control. |
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| About the Plant Species Graph: Average number of beneficial insects collected at each plant species the week before, during, and after peak bloom, for plant species blooming from mid-August through early October (+ standard error). Yellow coneflower (Ratibida pinnata) boxed in red. Bars for natural enemies are in green, bars for bees are in yellow. Bars for native plants are solid and nonnative plants are striped. The black line on the top graph shows the number of natural enemies in grass with no flowering plants (grass control). Plants are listed in order of peak bloom. |
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| Habitat: Tolerances for this plant include full sun to partial shade, and mid-range soil moisture (neither very wet nor very dry). Naturally occurring in full sun in wet meadows and thickets, in floodplains, along river banks, and borders of woods. Cultivation and Management: Easily grown from seed.Flowers in second or third year when grown from seed. Also can be grown from plug material (flowers in first or second year). There was a lot of deer browse on this species. Seed heads attract birds.
Availability: Species is available as seed, plug or container grown material from various native plant nurseries. Michigan Native Plant Producers Association
For more information: USDA-NRCS PLANTS database
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This fact sheet prepared by: Doug Landis, Anna Fiedler, Department of Entomology, Michigan State University. Please note: The information presented at this web site should be considered a guideline to be adapted for your situation. MSU makes no warranty about the use of the information presented here. Read disclaimer. |
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