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Native Plant Society of Texas

Clear Lake Chapter

Plant of the Month: Lanceleaf Tickseed

Presented by Melina Carson
October 10, 2022

Botanical name: Coreopsis lanceolata
Common name(s): Lanceleaf Tickseed, Lanceleaf Coreopsis, Lance-leaved Coreopsis, Sand Coreopsis, Tickseed, Longstalk Coreopsis
Family: Asteraceae (Aster)

[MUS—EASY AND FUN]

[MELINA] Hello, everybody. This month’s plant is the Coreopsis lanceolata, commonly known as the Lanceleaf Tickseed. This presentation will highlight the common names, distribution, characteristics, planting conditions, gardening tips, uses, benefits, and was written by Brittney Barnett. And my name is Melina Carson.

Coreopsis lanceolata is from the family Asteraceae, or the Aster family. You may hear many common names including Tickseed, Lanceleaf Coreopsis, Lance-leaved Coreopsis, Lanceleaf Tickseed, Sand Coreopsis, and Longstalk Coreopsis. Coreopsis is derived from Greek words “koris” meaning bug and “opsis” meaning view. Tickseed simply refers to its seeds that resemble ticks.

Right off the bat you can see how widely distributed Tickseed is. On the right you can see that the light green section of East Texas is a native region and it is very commonly found. However, it is present throughout the United States, parts of Canada, and Mexico. The native habitats include open woodlands, prairies, plains, meadows, pastures, and savannas. And it occurs naturally in moist sandhills, marshes, and along swamp edges.

Going over some characteristics, you can immediately see how vibrant and yellow they are. They are an herbaceous perennial that forms in clumps and are a native flower. The mature plant is one to three feet tall and about one to two feet wide. Their leaves are narrow, grass-green in color, and about three to four inches in length, oppositely arranged, and may or may not be hairy. Basal leaves are divided while upper leaves are undivided in lanceolate in shape. The vibrant flowers are about one to three inches in size and one row of seven to twenty petals. On average, however, eight petals surround a yellow center. Petals are also yellow and are notched at apex. Their seeds are dark brown, winged, and curved to almost semi-circular. Again, the common name of Tickseed comes from the fact that the seeds look like ticks. You can see this in the photo with the quarter.

The ideal planting conditions require a soil texture of either loam, sand, or shallow rocky areas. They typically stay within a neutral pH range, but can also survive some acidic soils. They do require good drainage, moisture, or occasionally dry. Coreopsis prefers full sun, but will tolerate light shade. Heavily shaded areas produce plants with fewer flowers and taller stems as a result of lack of sun. And their bloom time is mid to late spring to early summer.

If you choose to plant Coreopsis in your garden, you will find that they are very adaptable, and they do well in gardens and landscape settings. It does, however, need to be maintained because they are a prolific self-seeder that may become weedy. Deadheading of spent flowers will help control the self-seeding and encourage additional blooms. If you notice that they are sprawling out, you can cut them back quite a bit. About every two to three years, you can divide them to maintain the robustness. And you may also notice crown rot if grown in overly moist, poorly drained soils.

They have an array of uses and benefits. They attract pollinators like bees and butterflies, as well as songbirds. Goldfinches, other small birds, and small wildlife commonly eat the seeds. It attracts multiple species of butterflies, including skippers, buckeyes, painted ladies, and the occasional Monarch. It also tolerates deer, drought, dry soil, heat, humidity, and poor soil conditions. Coreopsis overall is a sturdy, beautiful plant that is beneficial to many species across the U.S.

Here are the sources that you can follow for more information. Thank you to Brittney for this presentation. Have a good day everybody.

[MUS—AND THAT’S IT]

Sources

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Plant of the month for August is Splitbeard Bluestem, Andropogon ternarius, and also called Feather Bluestem or Paintbrush Bluestem. It is a native. It's a warm season grass. It's a perennial. It's a bunchgrass. By warm season, it means that it's dormant in the winter and starts growing in the spring as the weather warms up. A bunchgrass tends to stay in a small circle or a bunch. The grass has numerous thin basal leaves, which usually stay about 12 or 15 inches tall, which makes it ideal in our home landscapes. It grows best in part shade to full sun. And this grass will be available at our plant sale on October 20 and 21. It prefers to grow in sand or well-drained soil, which we kind of struggle with here, but it does do well. It's shade tolerant and drought tolerant. I know the camera has a hard time focusing on those light hairy little seeds. The bloom time is from August to November. In late summer, it will send up its bloom stalk, which may be up to three feet tall. And, as the seeds on the long slender stalk mature, they'll split into two tiny stems about two inches long, each with seeds of fluffy white tufts. The seeds are wind distributed. The plants may be started from seed or another way is to dig your mature plant and with your shovels, cut it into maybe four sections, which then can be replanted in other places in your yard or shared with some of your neighbors. It's an easy plant to grow. Splitbeard can be found on the prairie with Little Bluestem and it's great when it's seen in the afternoon sun en masse; reminds me of snowflakes on the branches. And it can be used in a winter dried arrangement in the house. Native bees can use Splitbeard Bluestem for nesting materials. And until their bloom stalk is sent up, the narrow basal leaves are hard to distinguish from other bunchgrasses such as Sideoats Grama. And there it is. And you note how the seeds are all on one side, thus its name. We don't have any of this one for sale at our fall sale. Maybe we will in the spring, in April. But it was interesting, I thought, when I looked for Splitbeard Bluestem in the Wasowski book of Native Texas Plants these two bunchgrasses were on the same page. So, that is the story of the Sideoats Grama and the Splitbeard Bluestem.

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About the Region

2026 Fall Symposium Logo

This low-elevations region of Texas extends inland from the barrier islands, about 60 or so miles, and stretches from Brownsville to Louisiana. In total, it covers about 9.5 million acres, with a high point of 150 feet in elevation. More than 1000 species of plants can be found in this region. On the southern end, species more common in Mexico (such as Sabal mexicana) and Central America occur.

The barrier islands provide us with dune systems, and clay flats to the inland side, which have species found in these areas alone. Many plants here, such as Ipomoea pes-caprae (beach morning glory), can be found throughout tropical regions of the globe. I’ve encountered the same species on the beaches of Guam.

Once inland, vast marshes and wet prairies occur. Occasionally, oak (Quercus fusiformis) groves can be found. Common grasses include species of Bothriochloa, Paspalum, and Sporobolus; eastern gamagrass (Tripsacum dactyloides); and switchgrass (Panicum species). Many rivers and creeks cut through the Gulf Prairies, and along these riparian areas various species of trees, Sabal minor, and other plants adapted to clay soils can be found. Due to overgrazing, farming, and fire suppression, woody species such as mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) and huisache (Acacia farnesiana), and invasive species such as chinaberry (Melia azedarach), Brazilian pepper (Schinus terebinthifolius), and Chinese tallow (Sapium sebiferum) have increased and displaced our native flora.

Source: Wildflowers of Texas by Michael Eason