6. Coreopsis tripteris L. (tall tickseed, tall coreopsis)
C. tripteris var. deamii Standl.
Pl. 276 a; Map
1165
Plants
perennial, with short, stout rhizomes. Stems 60–180(–250) cm long, usually
glabrous, sometimes somewhat glaucous. Leaves distributed at mostly 10 or more
nodes along 2/3 or more of the length of the stems, short-petiolate, the
uppermost leaves sometimes nearly sessile. Leaf blades 3–12 cm long, mostly
broadly obovate in outline, those of the uppermost leaves simple and unlobed
but most of the leaves with the blades ternately or palmately deeply divided or
compound with 3 or less commonly 5 divisions or leaflets, these entire (in some
ternately compound leaves the middle leaflet deeply divided into 3 divisions),
5–25(–30) mm wide, lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, angled or tapered to a
slender attachment point at the base, angled or tapered to a bluntly or sharply
pointed tip, the surfaces glabrous or sparsely to densely hairy with short,
curved hairs. Inflorescences mostly appearing as loose, open clusters or
panicles, the heads with the stalk mostly 2–6 cm long. Involucre with the outer
series of bracts 2–5 mm long, glabrous or sparsely to moderately hairy; the
inner series of bracts 6–9 mm long. Chaffy bracts more or less linear, with a
slender base, sometimes slightly thickened toward the rounded or angled,
bluntly to sharply pointed tip. Ray florets with the corolla 12–25 mm long,
entire or with 2 or 3(4) minute teeth in the center of the otherwise more or
less rounded tip, uniformly yellow (sometimes with fine, purplish veins). Disc
florets with the corollas 5–6 mm long, 5-lobed, reddish purple, sometimes with
a yellow tube. Style branches tapered abruptly to a sharply pointed, sterile
tip. Pappus absent or more commonly of 2 awns to 0.5 mm long. Fruits 4–7 mm
long, the base and tip appearing slightly arched inward at maturity, the angles
with narrow, pale wings having entire margins and occasionally with a few hairs
at the tip, the inner face not thickened at the ends, dark brown to black, the
surfaces smooth. 2n=26. July–September.
Scattered nearly
throughout the state but apparently absent from the Mississippi Lowlands
Division (eastern U.S. west to Iowa and Texas; Canada). Upland prairies,
savannas, openings of mesic to dry upland forests, ledges and tops of bluffs,
and banks of streams and rivers; also old fields, railroads, and roadsides.
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.