COMPOSITAE COMPOSITE FAMILY 
PRAIRIE TICKSEED. STIFF TICKSEED 
Coreopsis palmata Nutt. 
The Prairie or Stiff Tickseed is a typical prairie perennial, 
abundant on dry areas, along railroads and in other open places 
from Indiana to Louisiana, Manitoba, Minnesota, Nebraska and 
Texas. It blooms in June and July. 
The stem, which is rigid, smooth, 
but little branched and very leafy, \ WZ, 
grows I-3 feet high. The leaves are AY 
very characteristic and help toidentify @<oS3% - 
the plant. All are 2-3 inches long, <i 
sessile, thick and rigid; all but the Yj 
uppermost are broadly wedge shaped 
and palmately 3-lobed to about the 
middle. These lobes are linear-oblong, 
blunt and entire or with 1-3 lateral 
rough-margined lobes. 
The heads are few, sometimes soli- 
tary, are short peduncled and 1-2 
inches broad. The hemispherical in- 
volucre is composed of 2 distinct series 
of bracts, the outer ones being narrower ( 
and a little shorter than the inner. 
The receptacle, chaffy and nearly flat, t 
bears 6-10 bright yellow, oblong or : 
obovate ray flowers mostly 3-toothed, and the numerous disk 
flowers which are also yellow. The akenes, produced in all plants 
of this genus by the disk flowers, are flat, oblong, narrowly 
winged and slightly curved, and the pappus consists of 2 short 
teeth or may be absent. 
The Tall Tickseed, Coreopsis tripteris L., grows in moist woods 
and thickets and blooms from July to October. Its smooth stem is 
4-8 feet high and much branched near the top. The leaves are 
petioled, smooth or nearly so, and the lower ones are divided into 3-5 
lanceolate, entire rough-margined segments, which are 2-5 inches 
long and pinnately veined. The upper leaves are lanceolate and en- 
tire. The outer bracts of the involucre are much narrower and some- 
what shorter than the inner. The 6-10 ray flowers are yellow and not 
toothed, and the disk flowers are also yellow. The akenes are oblong 
to obovate and narrowly winged, but there is no pappus. 
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