Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

TALL COREOPSIS

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Coreopsis tripteris L.

Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center, Newton County, Missouri

Perennial

Height: 2-8 feet

Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family

Flowering Period: July, August, September

Also Called:

Tall tickseed.

Stems:

Erect, single, stout, glabrous, occasionally glaucous; arising from short, stout rhizome.

Leaves:

Opposite, numerous; stalks .2 to 1.6 inch long; uppermost leaves sometimes sessile; blades broadly egg-shaped in outline, often deeply divided into 3, sometimes 5, segments or leaflets; segments lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 2 to 5 inches long, .25 to 1.2 inch wide, usually simple; terminal segment often divided again; tips tapered to blunt or sharp points; bases angled or tapered; surfaces glabrous or sparsely to densely hairy; uppermost leaves simple, un-lobed.

Inflorescences:

Panicle, loose, open; heads, several to many, on stalks 1 to 2 inches long; involucral bracts in 2 series, glabrous or hairy; outer bracts about 8, linear-oblong, 1/12 to 1/8 inch long, shorter than inner; inner bracts broader, larger, tips more pointed.

Flowers:

Ray florets 5-10; ligules .5 to 1 inch long, entire or with 2-4 minute teeth in center of tip, yellow, occasionally with minute, purplish veins; disk to .4 inch wide; disk florets 40-80+, .2 to .25 inch long, 5-lobed, purplish to deep red, tube sometimes yellow.

Fruits:

Achene, egg-shaped, 1/6 to 1/4 inch long, dark brown to black, surfaces smooth, tipped with few minute bristles, often with 2 short awns.

Habitat:

Wooded stream and river banks, woodland openings, roadsides, old fields, moist or wet low areas; loamy or sandy soils.

Distribution:

Eastern tier of Kansas counties

Origin:

Native

Uses:

Native Americans boiled the stems and took the liquid for internal pains or bleeding.

Comments:

The flowering heads have a slight anise fragrance.