Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. Time of bloom: May to August. Seed-time: June to September. Range: Western Ontario to Virginia and Florida. Locally in the Eastern States. Habitat: Meadows, fence rows, roadsides, and thickets.

A plant often cultivated because of the showy beauty of its flowers, and freely escaping. Stem one to two feet in height, branching from the lower part, smooth, or slightly downy near the base. Leaves opposite, two to six inches long, lance-shaped or the lowest spatulate, tapering to petioles which partly clasp the stem; upper ones sessile, all entire, with rough edges. Heads solitary, about two inches broad, on slender, naked peduncles often a foot in length; disk florets perfect, fertile, the five-lobed corollas purplish brown; rays six to ten, neutral, bright yellow, broadest at apex, and three-lobed with the middle lobe notched. Involucre hemispheric, its ' bracts in two rows, the outer ones narrower than the inner and not so long. Achenes rounded oblong, broadly winged, crowned with two short teeth. (Fig. 328.)

Fig. 328. -Lance-leaved Tickseed (Coreopsis lanceolata). X 1/4.

Means Of Control

Prevention of seeding by repeated cutting, which will also finally starve the roots. Cultivation of the soil at once destroys the weed.