plains coreopsis

not listed

N5 - Secure

SNR - Unranked

not listed

FAC - Facultative

FACU - Facultative upland

FACU - Facultative upland

Plains coreopsis is a 12″ to 48″ tall, erect, usually annual, sometimes biennial forb that rises on usually a single stem from a taproot.

The stems are erect, ridged, hairless, and much branched above the middle.

The leaves are opposite, broadly egg-shaped in outline, ⅝″ to 4″ long, and 3 ⁄16″ to 1″ wide. They are distributed in 6 to 12 pairs along ⅔ or more of the stem. Lower leaves are pinnately divided, bipinnately divided, or rarely 3 times pinnately divided. They are on stalks up to 3⅛″ long. Upper leaves are usually pinnately divided, rarely undivided, and stalkless or almost stalkless. The leaf blades have usually 5 to 25 ultimate segments. The ultimate segments are narrowly linear to linear lance-shaped, ⅜″ to 1¾″ long, and 1 ⁄32″ to ⅛″ wide. They are hairless and are tapered at the base and the tip.

The inflorescence is a branched cluster of many flower heads at the ends of the upper branches.

The flower heads are 1″ to 2″ wide on stalks ¾″ to 2″ or more long. The involucre is bell-shaped and is composed of 2 series of usually 8 bracts each. The inner bracts are triangular or egg-shaped, ⅛″ to ⅜″ long, and reddish to dark red-brown. The outer bracts are triangular to lance-shaped, 1 ⁄32″ to ⅛″ long, and green, often reddish tinged. There are 6 to 12, usually 8, ray florets and numerous disk florets. The ray florets are ½″ to ¾″ long and yellow with a dark red-brown blotch at the center. They have 3, sometimes 4, shallow lobes at the tip, usually a large central lobe and 2 smaller lateral lobes. The disk is 1 ⁄5″ to ½″ wide. The disk floret is a yellow-orange, 4-lobed corolla tube with a deep purple tip, and a forked style that is orange at the tip and extends beyond the corolla tube.

The fruit is an achene that does not have a tuft of hair (pappus) attached.

12″ to 48″

Yellow with a red-brown center

Other Coreopsis species have flower petals that are yellow throughout.

Prairie coreopsis (Coreopsis palmata) is unbranched. The leaves are divided well above the middle into 3 lobes well above the base and have the shape of a turkey foot. The inner bracts on the involucre are yellow-brown. The ray flowers are yellow throughout and have a rounded tip with or without a few tiny teeth at the tip. The disk florets are yellow and the disk appears yellow.

Damp, disturbed sites.

June to August

Plains coreopsis is widely sold as an ornamental plant for gardens and is also sold as a cut flower.

Sources

2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 28, 29, 30.

The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) has many scattered records throughout Minnesota. All other sources listed here show the plant restricted to the southeast quarter of the state, with just one (USDA PLANTS and BONAP) or a few (iNaturalist) outlying occurrences. The map at left includes the GBIF records.

Native

Uncommon in Minnesota