Flower:

Flowers are single at the top of the stem, 2 to 3 inches across with about 8 yellow rays (petals) that are shallowly lobed or toothed at the tip. The center disk is yellow with numerous tiny, 5-petaled flowers.

The bracts (phyllaries) cupping the flower head are in 2 series, the inner phyllaries in 2 layers, diamond to egg-shaped, blunt to pointed at the tip, green at the base and yellowish to brownish to greenish at the tip; the outer phyllaries are slightly shorter than the inner, narrowly egg-shaped to triangular, green, and hairless or fringed with short hairs. Flower stalks are mostly hairless.

Leaves and stems:

Leaves are all on the lower half of the stem, opposite, 3 to 8 inches long, to about 1 inch wide, broadest above or below the middle, blunt to pointed at the tip, tapering at the base, toothless, hairless or variously stiff-hairy. The lowest leaves are stalked and may have 1 or 2 pair of narrow lobes near the base; the uppermost leaves are smallest, short-stalked to stalkless. Stems are mostly hairless, branched or not, multiple from the base forming clumps.

Fruit:

Fruit is a black, egg-shaped seed about 1/8 inch (to 3 mm) long, with brown, papery wings along the edges.

Notes:

Lanceleaf Coreopsis is native from the Great Lakes south to the Gulf of Mexico, but the western edge of its range ends at the Wisconsin/Minnesota border. It is widely available in the nursery trade and is sometimes included in restoration plantings. It is recognized by leaves all on the lower half of the stem, most leaves lacking any lobes; all-yellow flowers 2 to 3 inches across, the rays toothed or shallowly lobed at the tips; black seeds with brown, papery wings.