Plant IDs Needed

At times I am encouraged to go to the Plant Identification forum, so I thought to do this, but the posts are getting pushed down without any replies. Do you have any thoughts on these?
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1401197/

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1401172/

In the bottom one, I know it is a purple coneflower. I just want to doubly make sure it is the E. purpurea

And here is another plant. It's in my prairie patch, but I do not want to assume it's a wanted plant. It does not look like the abundance of invasives we have around the place. The leaves feel fuzzy.

Thank you for any help.

I replied to your first link, so it's now back at the top of the Plant ID forum. I'm afraid I wasn't much help; I just asked whether you could post photos of the flowers, but maybe someone will take a close look and recognize it!

About your questions on the second link: I don't think that is a Stinging Nettle; here's what USDA shows for Stinging Nettle leaves http://plants.usda.gov/java/largeImage?imageID=urdi_008_ahp.jpg

You might have better luck on the Plant ID forum if you do a separate post for each plant and post more photos of each plant ..e.g. one of the entire plant, one of a branch, front and maybe back of a leaf and a close-up of a bud or flower.

That Purple Coneflower in your 2nd link looks like Echinacea purpurea to me; are you thinking that it could be a cultivar? The color seems to vary based on how much sunlight the plant gets, plus the petals on the plant in your photo have started to fade...still, it looks like E. purpurea to me too!

More photos of the above plant would be helpful; I'm sure it's grown a lot in a week, too!

Thank you for your replies. :)

I have ruled out Stinging Nettle by this time. I even risked touching it and no stings and it does not have hairs on the stems. Some insect is enjoying it though.

I had recently seen a blog post about another native purple coneflower and just wanted to make sure it was not that one, Echinacea pallida. The writer suggested that people keep the Echinacea purpurea in their yards, but to never put it in prairie restorations in this area. ?!?!?!!! I am not sure I ever heard that one before. I'll have to look into that. And here I was excited about seeing these bloom for the first time here.

I need to my prairie patch and see what's happening back there. We have been very warm. Now I know what the culprit is... It's not high temps, nor high humidity necessarily, but high dew points! I need to learn what that is because I used to think that was related to humidity. The computer lady on the weather radio said Tuesday the temp will get up to the mid-80's, "but more importantly the dew point will drop". They rarely stray from the usual rambling, so that caught my attention.

About my tall plant.... some are pretty sure it is a Meadow Blazingstar. (Liatris ligulistylis) What I have at home has a different shaped bud from the Rough. It's been in this stage for awhile now, so I am almost giving up hope it will bloom. 1. The mystery 2. Rough Blazingstar. The very top flowers are blooming on this plant.

You're welcome!

I found this about Echinacea purpurea in Iowa - perhaps that writer said to keep it out of prairie restorations because E. pallida occurs more often in the wild (that's just my guess based on this link)?! Still, any native is better than Japanese plants in my book! http://uipress.lib.uiowa.edu/ppi/display.php?record=Echinacea_purpurea

I'm glad people were able to ID your Liatris. It'll bloom!

About the photo I posted on this thread...
Stiff Goldenrod Solidago rigida

I emailed a local lady and she happens to have some. It matches photos I've been going through. I have another Goldenrod, but it appears to be the Canada variety. At this point, it's a native. If it becomes aggressive, until other things start popping up, I am not going to complain.

After I found some Noddling Onion in my prairie patch (YAY), I looked at the list from the seed mix I ordered. It seems I planted some of the E. pallida, but I haven't seen any yet.

I found another patch of Stiff Goldenrod and it is beginning to flower.

How large is your prairie area, Chilly?

Between two seed sowings and prairie plants added, maybe we have two acres of prairie, but so many invasives still exist. I thought the white clover was choking everything out late spring, but quite a bit has come up nicely. I cannot recognize any of the native grasses, except Canada Rye. There should be more though. We are talking of hiring someone who does prairie restorations and consulting, just to get an idea of what to do about the large areas of brome and Canada thistle. He was the fellow I purchased all those mysteries from. I better have note pad in hand when he comes over. :)

Here is a fun blog entry about using natives to combat invasives, but he talks of the different situations that come into play as to whether or not there'd be success.
http://prairieecologist.com/2015/08/03/chuck-norris-of-the-prairie/

We wanted to hire the "goat people" to knock out the thistle, but there must've been some miscommunication and they never came out. That was ideal because of our location we didn't want to risk burning.

I should take a picture of our first patch. The second seed sowing was done this spring, so it's still at that stage where we have to keep it mowed down the first year. We've only been mowing around what we learned was Canada Goldenrod. It obviously was already established. It is aggressive, but I think it is one of those that knock back as other things come up.

What an interesting process!

After some public land near my house was cleared a few years ago for drainage work, someone who apparently knew what they were doing sowed lots of seeds for native plants that grew quickly and kept non-native invasives from getting established. One of the dominant ones is Chamaecrista fasciculata (Partridge Pea) http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/prairie/plantx/part_peax.htm I need more of that in my woodland restoration project. I think I have pulled out some because I thought they were Mimosa seedlings.

There was Partridge Pea in the seed mix and after some of it went to seed, I put some in a different spot and this is now blooming. That is an easy plant! I am thinking of getting more seed to cover an area.