2. Coreopsis lanceolata L. (tickseed coreopsis)
C. lanceolata var. villosa Michx.
Pl. 275 a, b;
Map 1161
Plants
perennial, with a short, horizontal rootstock. Stems 20–60 cm long (taller in
cultivated races), glabrous or sparsely to moderately pubescent with spreading
hairs, especially toward the base. Leaves confined to 1–3(–5) nodes
(occasionally more in cultivated forms) mostly in the lower half of the plant,
the uppermost leaves sessile, the basal and lowermost stem leaves mostly
long-petiolate. Leaf blades 2.5–12.0 cm long, narrowly oblanceolate or narrowly
elliptic to ovate or oblong-ovate in outline, unlobed or with 1 or 2(–5) deep
basal (pinnate) lobes or divisions, in entire leaves the blade angled to
long-tapered at the base, in divided leaves, the lateral lobes or divisions
much shorter than the terminal lobe or division, 2–9 mm wide, linear, narrowly
oblong, or elliptic, more or less narrowed toward the base, angled or tapered
to a usually sharply pointed tip, the surfaces glabrous or sparsely to
moderately pubescent with short, spreading hairs. Inflorescences of solitary
heads or appearing as loose, open clusters, the heads with the stalk mostly 8–40
cm long. Involucre with the outer series of bracts 5–10 mm long; the inner
series of bracts 9–12 mm long. Chaffy bracts narrowly triangular, long-tapered
from an abruptly broadened, flat basal portion to a sharply pointed tip. Ray
florets with the corolla 15–30 mm long, with 3–5 deep, sometimes irregular
(appearing jagged) teeth or lobes around the tip, uniformly yellow. Disc
florets with the corollas 3.5–5.0 mm long, 5-lobed, yellow, sometimes with
yellowish orange lobes. Style branches tapered abruptly to a sharply pointed,
sterile tip. Pappus of 1 or 2 scalelike teeth 0.3–0.8 mm long. Fruits 2.5–4.0
mm long, the base and tip appearing curled or arched inward at maturity, the
angles with broad, pale wings having entire or more commonly somewhat irregular
margins, the inner face with a bulbous thickening at 1 or both ends, dark brown
to black, 1 or both surfaces with numerous small, lighter-colored tubercles. 2n=26.
April–July.
Scattered,
mostly in the Ozark and Ozark Border Divisions; introduced elsewhere in the
state (eastern U.S. west to Wisconsin and Texas; Canada; introduced in the
western U.S.).
Steyermark
(1963) maintained that plants encountered outside the Ozarks represented
escapes from cultivation. The species also sometimes is planted along highways
for roadside beautification. Smith (1976) examined specimens from throughout
the range of this species and determined that none of the infraspecific taxa
based on differences in leaf dissection and pubescence that had been accepted
by some earlier authors were worthy of continued recognition.