This week for Flora and Fauna Friday it’s the golden glow of a sandy mid-spring road, Goldenmane Tickseed (Coreopsis basilis).
A small sea of rich yolk-yellow flowers, inch wide with black cores ringed in a corona of crimson, flutters and flows over the drafty shoulders of our rural Island roads. Every year as spring enters full swing our Goldenmane Coreopsis is abloom. It’s a plant that’s native to the Gulf Coast but has long since established a foothold in the coastal plain of the Southeast. It’s a drought tolerant annual with a love for sunny roadsides, meadows, and lawn edges. In the right conditions, they can fill an entire field to the brim with glimmering golden petals. Leaves are deeply lobed and flowers borne individually on long, skinny stalks. Each plant grows singly and reaches about twelve inches in height. Goldenmane Coreopsis does fantastic in gardens and will readily volunteer year after year.
