Coreopsis basalis, commonly known as the goldenmane tickseed, is a North American plant species in the sunflower family. It is native to the southeastern and south-central United States from Texas to the Carolinas. Isolated populations (apparently escapees from cultivation) have been reported from Connecticut, Illinois, and California.
Coreopsis basalis is a bushy annual up to 60 cm (2 feet) tall with finely cut foliage and showy round flower heads. Plants with internodes 4âÂÂ7(âÂÂ10) cm long with both basal and cauline leaves. The foliage is produced on the bottom 3/4âÂÂ7/8 of plants height. The leaf petioles are 8âÂÂ35 mm (sometimes over 120 mm) long and the leaf blades are simple (mostly basal leaves) or some with a few pinnate lobes, the cauline leaves are generally cut with rounded lobes, with 3âÂÂ9+ lobes per leaf. The simple leaf blades (or if lobed, the terminal lobes) elliptic or lanceolate to oblanceolate or linear. The leaf blades are typically 25âÂÂ55+ mm long and 2âÂÂ9 mm wide but plants are variable and blade width can range from 1 to 20 mm. Peduncles holding the flower heads 6âÂÂ15+ cm long. Phyllaries bracts under the flower heads lance-ovate and 7âÂÂ9+ mm long. The ray florets are 15âÂÂ20+ mm long and bright yellow with reddish markings near their attachment points to the head. Disc corollas 3âÂÂ4 mm long and the apices are red-brown to purple. Cypselae or fruits with one seed each produced from fertilized flowers are 1.2âÂÂ1.8 mm long and wingless but the margins tend to be in-rolled.
Plants grow in sandy soils in open areas, often in disturbed ground. The species range in the eastern part of the USA is increasing as plants are used in landscaping.
Coreopsis basalis plants from the central Texas to southern Oklahoma area normally have narrower leaf blade lobes and narrower outer phyllaries, these plants have been segregated out as C. wrightii or as C. basalis var. wrightii in the past by some authorities.