Coreopsis integrifolia

Coreopsis integrifolia, the Chipola River coreopsis, is a rare southeastern native that saves its show for the end of the season. When most of the summer flowers have gone over, this tickseed lifts deep golden-yellow daisies, each centered with a dark maroon eye, on slender stems well above the foliage, bringing fresh color to the fall garden. A choice and uncommon perennial, known in the wild from only a handful of counties, the plant is as valuable to the gardener as it is to the pollinators working late.

In the wild this coreopsis grows along the banks and floodplains of blackwater streams from the Carolina and Georgia coastal plain down to the Florida Panhandle, with the stronghold along the Chipola River that lends the common name. Genuinely rare and ranked as imperiled, the species is a conservation-worthy native that nursery propagation helps to keep and to share. Unlike the dry-loving tickseeds, this one relishes moisture, thriving in the damp, rich soils of a streamside home.

The name tickseed comes from the small, flat seeds, thought to resemble ticks, and coreopsis itself joins the Greek words for bug and appearance in the same idea. The dark-green leaves are smooth-edged, the trait behind the species name integrifolia, or entire-leaved, and the plant spreads slowly by underground runners into a modest, well-behaved colony rather than an aggressive mat. In fall the flowers draw bees and butterflies to a late and welcome meal.

Give Coreopsis integrifolia full sun to part shade and moist, rich soil, and unlike most tickseeds the plant will happily take a damp spot, a rain garden, or the edge of a pond or stream. Massed in a sunny border or a moist native planting, the deep yellow fall daisies close the season with real warmth. For a gardener who wants late color, pollinator value, and a rare native worth conserving, this Chipola coreopsis is a quiet treasure.