Audubon® Native Prairie Tickseed

Pollinator pit stop! Prairie Coreopsis is a chipper wildflower Spirit with sunny, buttercup-like flowers that pollinators adore. Eager customers include many native bees, such as leaf-cutter bees, cuckoo bees, digger bees, and sweat bees, as well as butterflies, beetles, and beneficial wasps and flies. One species of solitary ground-dwelling bee, in particular, depends on Coreopsis pollen to feed its young, and Prairie Coreopsis can fill that role. Wildlife appeal does not stop there, as the seeds that follow are appealing to finches, sparrows, and juncos. This is a spreading perennial for natural spaces. Use it in wildflower meadows, restoration projects, and wildlife-friendly plantings of all types.

Prairie Coreopsis is a relic of the vast tallgrass prairies that once graced our central states. Its native range encompasses a rough triangle bordered by Minnesota, Indiana, and Oklahoma/Arkansas, which is also exactly where the tallgrass prairie stood. At no more than 30 inches tall, Prairie Coreopsis was at a disadvantage when growing next to giants like Big Bluestem and Sunflowers. It competed successfully by blooming earlier than other wildflowers (in late spring and early summer). It also coped by developing a tolerance for poorer, shallower soils, where prairie giants don’t generally thrive.

“Coreopsis” comes from the Greek words for “looks like a bug.” Another common name for Coreopsis is Tickseed. These names actually refer to Beggars Tick, a plant that used to be classified as a Coreopsis. Its seeds have two sharp prongs that enable them to latch on to animal fur, like a tick. Another name for Prairie Coreopsis is Stiff Tickseed, because its straight, unbranching stems are rigid in appearance.