Plains Coreopsis

Weather: Great amounts of rain have been forecast, but all we got this wee was clouds and moisture laden air that kept soil water from evaporating; last rain 7/29.

What’s blooming in the area: Hybrid tea roses, bird of paradise, fernbush, buddleia, silver lace vine, trumpet creeper, rose of Sharon, hollyhock, datura, sweet pea, alfalfa, Russian sage, annual four o’clock, bouncing Bess, purple garden phlox, red amaranth, farmer’s single sunflowers, coreopsis, blanket flower, yellow yarrow, zinnias, brome grass.

Beyond the walls and fences: Trees of heaven, buffalo gourd, yellow mullein, goat’s head, white sweet clover, bindweed, green-leaf five-eyes, white prairie and yellow evening primroses, Queen Anne’s lace, Hopi tea, plains paper flower, horseweed, wild lettuce, flea bane, gumweed, goldenrod, áñil del muerto, strap leaf, golden hairy and purple asters, ring muhly grass.

In my yard: Rugosa roses, yellow potentilla, Saint John’s wort, California poppy, snow-in-summer, coral beard tongue, lady bells, catmints, calamintha, blue flax, larkspur, winecup mallow, pink evening primrose, Mexican hat, black-eyed Susan, chocolate flower, bachelor button, white yarrow, purple coneflower, Mönch aster, reseeded Sensation cosmos.

Bedding plants: Sweet alyssum, snapdragon, pansy, moss roses, marigold, gazania.

What’s blooming inside: Zonal geraniums.

Animal sightings: Rabbit, hummingbirds, chickadee, and other small birds, geckos, bumble and small bees, hornets, ants; mosquitoes have hatched.

Weekly update: Mail order companies like to send free samples, although the last successful product promotion was the Delicious apple in 1895.

Wildseed Farms, of Fredericksburg, Texas, sends a seed mix, which I dutifully plant, usually with no results. The exception was 2012 when some plains coreopsis sprouted under a leaky hose connection. That wasn’t where I planted the seed. I assume it washed down the hose line.

I bought some seeds the next year and planted them in the same place. Only a few germinated. I tried again last year in a different location. Nothing. This year, with all the late spring rain, last year’s seed not only germinated, but the flowers have varied in coloring.

Coreopsis tinctoria was identified by Thomas Nuttall in 1819 in Arkansas Territory. The fibrous roots grow along the Missouri and both sides of the Mississippi south of their confluence near Saint Louis. In New Mexico, Augustus Fendler saw the yellow and mahogany notched flowers east of the Mora river, "between Coon Creek and Pawnee Fork in shallow hollows in the prairies, said to have been made by the buffaloes in wallowing."

Buffalos did roll, but wallows tended to be natural depressions that collected water and were enlarged by the animals. No doubt their shaggy coats collected seeds, which could have been deposited along the waterways west of the Mississippi.

Plains coreopsis also appears in clusters of contiguous counties that are separated from one another. One rather suspects seeds were purchased, and when found useful were passed from gardener to gardener.

Nuttall told members of the National Academy of Sciences in Philadelphia that "it promises to become the favorite of every garden where it is introduced." He also mentioned it produced a yellow dye. By mid-century, Joseph Breck called it a "a well-known hardy annual." In 1851 the Bostonian offered two varieties, one an ornamental, the other listed as Dyeing Calliopsis.

In New Mexico, Paul Standley discovered the composite near Shiprock on the Navajo reserve early in the twentieth century. Matilda Coxe Stevenson said, "this plant was introduced among the Zuñi many years go by the Navajo for making into a beverage." The Ramah Navajo were using a cold infusion to treat infections caused by lightning, especially enlarged abdomens, in the early 1950s.

Both groups incorporated it into their ritual lives. Navajo administered it during the Waterway Chant, a subgroup within the Shooting chants. Among the Zuñi, it was "drunk by women desiring girl babies." The Zuñi also used kia’naitu flowers with other florets to dye yarn a deep red.

The flowers are delicate when they bob over the tops of over plants. It’s not surprising the seeds spread to Europe and Japan. In China it’s grown as a cut flower and has naturalized in moist sandy or clay soils.

What is surprising is that it reached the Uyghur living in the far northwest Kunlun mountains. They used it in a tea to treat high blood pressure and diarrhea. Chinese scientist have tested the plant and discovered the link was the red pigments that made it a natural antioxidant.

Notes: For more on the promotion of the Delicious apple, see the post on "Orchards" for 14 August 2012.

Breck, Joseph. The Flower-Garden, 1851, reprinted by OPUS Publications, 1988.

Gray, Asa. "Plantae Fendleriane Novi-Mexicane," American Academy, Memoirs 4:1-116:1849.

Li, Ning, et alia. "Anti-Neuroinflammatory and NQO1 Inducing Activity of Natural Phytochemicals from Coreopsis tinctoria," Journal of Functional Foods 17:837-846:2015.

Li, Yali, et alia. "Flavonoids from Coreopsis tinctoria Adjust Lipid Metabolism in Hyperlipidemia Animals by Down-regulating Adipose Differentiation-related Protein. Lipids in Health and Disease 13:193:2014.

Missouri Botanical Garden and Harvard University Herbarium eFloras project. Flora of China website entry for Coreopsis tinctoria.

Nuttall, Thomas. "A Description of Some New Species of Plants Recently Introduced into the Gardens of Philadelphia from the Arkansas Territory," Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Journal 2:114-138:1821.

Stevenson, Matilda Coxe. Ethnobotany of the Zuñi Indians, 1915.

Vestal, Paul A. Ethnobotany of the Ramah Navaho, 1952.

Wooton, Elmer O. and Paul C. Standley. Flora of New Mexico, 1915.

Wyman, Leland C. "Navajo Ceremonial System" in Alfonso Ortiz, Handbook of North American Indians, volume 10, 1983.

Yao, Xincheng, et alia. "Comparative Study on the Antioxidant Activities of Extracts of Coreopsis tinctoria Flowering Tops from Kunlun Mountains, Xinjiang, North-Western China," Natural Product Research 17 March 2015.

Photographs: Plains coreopsis in my yard.
1. Where it planted itself, 16 July 2012.
2. Flower and bud, dark area smaller than normal, 16 July 2015.
3. Red flower, 24 July 2015.
4. Seed capsules, 24 July 2015.
5. Close-up of flower with normal color pattern, 24 July 2015.
6. Leaves disappear and the base, and persist on the stems, 24 July 2015.

Lance-Leaf Coreopsis

What’s blooming in the area: Tea roses, Apache plume, trumpet creeper, honeysuckle, silver lace vine, cholla, tall yucca, fern and leather leaved globemallows, tumble mustard, bird of paradise, alfalfa, scurf pea, white sweet and purple clover, Russian sage, milkweed, velvetweed, scarlet beeblossom, white and yellow evening primroses, nits and lice, datura, creeping and climbing bindweed, buffalo gourd, bachelor button, purple coneflower, Hopi tea, goatsbeard, hawkweed, horseweed, hairy golden and strap-leaf spine asters, blue grama grass; corn 2' high.
What’s blooming in my yard, looking north: Red hot poker peaked, golden-spur columbine, hartweg, butterfly weed peaked, zucchini, Mexican hat, chocolate flower, coreopsis, blanket flower, anthemis, black-eyed Susan, Moonshine and Parker’s Gold yarrow; buds on mums; sand cherries turning dark red; catalpa pods forming.
Looking east: Floribunda roses, California and Shirley poppies, hollyhock, winecup, sidalcea, coral bells, cheddar pinks, bouncing Bess, snow-in-summer peaked, snapdragons, coral beardtongue, Maltese cross, rock rose, pink evening primrose, large-leaved soapwort; buds on cut-leaf coneflower.
Looking south: Tamarix, Blaze and rugosa roses, daylily, bundle flower, sweet pea, Saint John’s wort, zinnia; buds on tomatillo.
Looking west: Lilies, flax, catmint, Rumanian sage, lady bells, sea lavender, white beardtongue, white spurge, perennial four o’clock; buds on Shasta daisy.
Bedding plants: Moss rose, sweet alyssum; first green tomato formed.
Inside: South African aptenia.

Animal sightings: Rabbit, hummingbird, gecko, different kind of bee on white beardtongue, sulfur butterfly, hummingbird moth, grasshoppers, large black harvester and small dark ants.
Weather: Hot all week, with howling winds Thursday night and high humidity yesterday; last useful rain 6/20/09; 15:50 hours of daylight today.
Weekly update: Sometimes a phrase sticks in my mind and I lose my ability to see the world except through its prism. In James Thurber’s short story, Walter Mitty imagines himself called into an emergency room to complete a dangerous operation. When the attending physician updates him on the patient’s condition, he warns "coreopsis is setting in."
Now I can never see that yellow composite without hearing Thurber. The solid, round buds protected by shiny, yellowish-green bracts emerge the end of May - coreopsis is setting in. The erect disk flowers open in June surrounded by ungradated yellow rays - coreopsis is setting in. The bracts reclose on the reproductive parts in a turban with darkened flags of dying petals - coreopsis is setting in.
Lance-leaved coreopsis is a native wildflower that can be found anywhere between the Appalachians and the Rockies, but which has fairly specific requirements within that range. In the Great Lakes area, Coreopsis lanceolata inhabits glacial remains that get at least 30" of rain a year and are slightly acidic.
In Michigan, the short rhizomes grow in sandy lands along lakes Michigan and Huron, and on the sandy glacial outwashes supporting relic oak barrens of inland Jackson, Livingston and Oakland counties. I grew up on a spit of better land between those areas less affected by the last glacier where Coreopsis lanceolata only grew as a garden plant that could easily escape.
In Illinois, the rough black seeds grow on south-facing hill prairies composed of loess and sand that had once been forested. Students at the Chicago Botanic Garden found the shortest exposure to smoke that could come from nearby a fire increases their ability to germinate.
When Thurber was living in Columbus the notched petals were commonly mentioned by garden writers, but also grew in the counties along route 62 that followed the south side of the watershed between the Great Lakes and Mississippi from the state capital to Canton. In New Mexico in those years, the wild form was found in open fields east of the Santa Fe and Las Vegas mountains. Even today, it’s restricted to San Miguel and Torrance counties.
In my garden coreopsis is transient. I never worry about dividing it every three years. I’m lucky individual plants live so long. Instead, I let the golden-yellow flowers go to seed, and cut off dead stalks in the spring. By then those stems have become inflexible shrub-like appendages connected to woody crowns that can yank out the roots if accidentally levered.
I also buy fresh seed each year to throw out in the spring and late summer, and let the spoon-shaped seedlings wander about the north-facing bed. With the variously aged plants, I don’t have to worry about keeping a single plant blooming all summer. Something is usually open somewhere. From the accumulated variations of repeated sowing, occasional semi-doubles appear or flowers with red spots at the bases of their rays.
The perennial’s accommodating nature makes it a favorite ingredient in commercial wildflower mixes. Someone down the road had several, simultaneous visions of his land. One was the modern suburban house with an immaculate green lawn maintained by flood irrigation. Another was a cottage in a forest opening surrounded by evergreen trees.
Some ten years ago, either the man or his wife thought a wildflower meadow would be nice, until the flax, blanket flowers, and coreopsis started blooming in the middle of their green sward while they had the house for sale. Each year the thoroughly naturalized flowers come back, and each year he or the new owner mows them down.
When I drive by and see the emerging humps of dark green in spring break the level plane of winter-grayed grass, my car turns into a rider mower, my sweat pants into chaps, and my garden hat into a Stetson. I look out over the range and mutter "coreopsis is setting in."
Notes:Forsberg, Britt, Lara V. Jefferson, Kayri Havens, and Marcello Pennacchio. "Prairie Seed Response to Smoke Cues," Chicago Botanic Garden Posters, 2004.Michigan Natural Features Inventory. "Natural Community Abstract for Oak Barrens," 2001, by J. G. Cohen.Robertson, Kenneth R., Mark W. Schwartz, Jeffrey W. Olson, Brian K. Dunphy, and H. David Clarke. "50 Years of Change in Illinois Hill Prairies," Illinois Natural History Survey websiteThurber, James. "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," 1939.United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service. "Coreopsis lanceolata L.," in Plants Profile database, maintained by John T. Kartesz; includes county distribution maps for Ohio and New Mexico.Voss, Edward G. Michigan Flora, volume 3, 1996Wooton, Elmer O. and Paul C. Standley. Flora of New Mexico, 1915, reprinted by J. Cramer, 1972.

Photograph: Lance-leaf coreopsis with buds and spent turban, 4 July 2009.