Hello Coreopsis floridana, aka Florida tickseed, a perennial but short-lived wildflower with soft stems and yellow flowers that grows 2 to 3 feet in moist pinelands, prairies, edges of cypress swamps, moist ditches and swales and flowers in the fall and winter. Butterflies love the nectar.

This particular species of Coreopsis is native to Florida. Hardcore botanists say out of roughly 15 Coreopsis species in Florida only two are endemic.

According to the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, characteristics of Florida’s official state wildflower include:

Growth rate: Fast

Flowering: Fall, winter

Flower color, characteristics: yellow, showy

Soils: Wet to moist, seasonally inundated sandy soils, without humus

Nutritional requirements: Low; it grows in nutrient poor soils

Drought tolerance: Low; requires moist to wet soils and is intolerant of long periods of drought

Light requirements: Full sun

Range: Endemic (worldwide distribution is limited to Florida) to Florida from Nassau County and Panhandle south to Miami-Dade, Highlands and Lee counties. Presumed extirpated in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. In Broward County, last collected in the Parkland area in 1982.

General landscape uses: Primarily recommended for natural landscapes and habitat restorations

Availability: Grown by enthusiasts

Wildlife and Ecology: Nectar plant for butterflies

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