Big Eastern: EOTP Species, Phlox pilosa

Phlox pilosa
Prairie Phlox

The lavender flowers of Phlox pilosa are one of the characteristic sights of early summer on savannas and dry prairies. In this photo taken in June, the phlox flowers are already nearly obscured by the fast growing coreopsis tripteris, illustrating the seasonal succession of prairie flowering. The shortest plants, like the violets, flower early, followed by those about a foot tall, like prairie phlox. The flowering plants become progressively taller as the summer progresses.

Phlox pilosa

Prairie Phlox is grouped with mesic prairie sand species here; however it is a species one would be very unlikely to encounter on "true tallgrass prairie". Prairie phlox (or downy phlox as it is often called) is also commonly present in oak savanna openings with Lithospermum croceum and lupines, as well as on the edge of xeric prairies.

This plant is considered the major host species for a moth, Schinia indiana, a candidate for federal listing. While the prairie phlox remains a fairly common wildflower in the Kankakee valley, the moth is listed as extirpated from Indiana.