3. Coreopsis palmata Nutt. (finger coreopsis)

Pl. 275 f, g; Map 1162

Plants perennial, with sometimes long-creeping rhizomes. Stems 40–90 cm long, glabrous or sparsely pubescent with short, spreading hairs, mostly around the nodes. Leaves distributed at 6–12 nodes along 2/3 or more of the length of the stems, sessile or occasionally minutely petiolate. Leaf blades 3–8 cm long, mostly broadly obovate in outline, 3-lobed from well above the base, the lobes sometimes lobed again, the 3–7(–9) ultimate segments 2–7 mm wide, narrowly oblong, more or less the same width throughout, sometimes very slightly narrowed toward the base, the surfaces glabrous (but the margins occasionally with a few hairs at the leaf base). Inflorescences of solitary heads or appearing as loose, open clusters, the heads with the stalk mostly 1–5 cm long. Involucre with the outer series of bracts 3–8 mm long; the inner series of bracts 6–10 mm long. Chaffy bracts more or less linear, with a slender base, often slightly thickened toward the bluntly to sharply pointed tip. Ray florets with the corolla 15–30 mm long, entire or with 2 or 3(4) minute teeth in the center of the otherwise more or less rounded tip, uniformly yellow to orangish yellow. Disc florets with the corollas 5.0–6.5 mm long, 5-lobed, yellow, sometimes with yellowish orange lobes. Style branches tapered abruptly to a sharply pointed, sterile tip. Pappus absent or of 1 or 2 teeth to 0.2 mm long. Fruits 4.5–6.5 mm long, the base and tip appearing slightly arched inward at maturity, the angles unwinged or more commonly with narrow, pale wings having entire margins, the inner face not thickened at the ends, dark brown to black, the surfaces smooth. 2n=26. May–September.

Scattered nearly throughout the state but uncommon in the Mississippi Lowlands Division and portions of the Glaciated Plains (Michigan to South Dakota south to Louisiana and Oklahoma). Upland prairies, glades, ledges and tops of bluffs, savannas, and openings of dry upland forests; also fallow fields, old fields, railroads, and roadsides.