plains coreopsis

Coreopsis tinctoria

Summary 4

Plains coreopsis, garden tickseed, golden tickseed, or calliopsis, Coreopsis tinctoria, is an annual forb. The plant is common to Canada (from Quebec to British Columbia), northeast Mexico (Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas), and much of the United States, especially the Great Plains and Southern states where it is often called "calliopsis." The species is also widely cultivated in and naturalized in China.

Description 5

This is an introduced annual wildflower about 1½–3' tall that branches occasionally. The stems are medium green and glabrous. The leaves are up to 6" long and 4" across (excluding the petioles); they are simple- or double-pinnate, medium green, and glabrous. The leaflets (or lobes) are up to 2" long and less than ¼" across; they are linear, linear-lanceolate, or linear-oblanceolate. The upper stems terminate in flowerheads that individually span about 1-2" across. Each flowerhead has 6-12 ray florets that surround numerous disk florets. The ray florets are reddish brown toward the center of the flowerhead, but become golden yellow toward their tips; less often, they may be reddish brown throughout. Each ray floret becomes wider toward its tip, which is divided into 3 large teeth. The tiny disk florets have corollas that are reddish brown and tubular in shape; each corolla has 4 tiny teeth along its upper rim. The base of each flowerhead is surrounded by glabrous brown bracts (phyllaries); the outer bracts at the very bottom of the flowerhead are small and triangular in shape, while the inner bracts are much larger in size and ovate in shape. The blooming period occurs from mid-summer to early fall and lasts about 1-2 months. The fertile disk florets are replaced by small achenes that lack tufts of hair. The root system is fibrous. This wildflower reproduces by reseeding itself. Cultivation

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) Victor Fazio, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/victor_fazio-iii/9055490573/
  2. (c) Jim Varnum, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Jim Varnum
  3. (c) John L. Jensen, all rights reserved, uploaded by John L. Jensen
  4. Adapted by Amber Leung from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coreopsis_tinctoria
  5. (c) John Hilty, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/29441695

More Info

iNat Map

Family Asteraceae
Blooms April