Coreopsis
by Valerie (June 27, 2000)
revised October 31, 2003
A very common wildflower, the plains coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria) grows in abundance just to the east of us, where there rainfall is a bit more consistent, but also does well in local gardens and we see it along the road at times. It is a sprawling annual with slender many-branched stems, sometimes growing to about three feet high. The leaves are narrow and lacy. At times we have had numerous plants, blooming well into the summer and producing lots of seed pods. Other years, hardly any come up. As the flowers dry up, the plants get fairly messy looking, but I've never had the heart to cut them back until they were completely done blooming and dead, since so many insects use the blossoms or live in the plants.
Coreopsis requires full sun and does not like to be overshadowed by larger plants. The young plants, which start to grow in the late winter, need adequate water, but once the plant is growing, its requirements are not great. A plant that has started to die off may resume growth and blossoming if we get a rainy spell. Although most of the flowers are maroon in the middle and gold on the outer part of their petals, sometimes certain plants will produce all-gold or all-maroon flowers. Another name for this flower is calliopsis, which might just be a mispronunciation of its real name. |