Coreopsis gladiata Walter

Short-lived, fibrous-rooted, glabrous perennial 5–12 dm; lvs mostly entire, the lower oblanceolate or spatulate, conspicuously long-petiolate, to 30 × 3.5 cm, or much smaller, middle cauline lvs reduced, linear, the upper mere upper bracts; heads several, the disk 6–18 mm wide, dark purplish; outer invol bracts much shorter than the inner; rays yellow, 1–2.5 cm; receptacular bracts linear, acute; disk-fls 4-toothed; style-appendages short and blunt; achenes oblong, 2–4.5 mm, the wings deeply and subpectinately lacerate; pappus of 2 short, upward barbed awns; 2n=26, 52, 156. Wet, often acid places; coastal plain from s. Va. to Fla. and Tex. Sept., Oct. Ours is var. linifolia (Nutt.) Cronquist, with the lvs minutely dark-dotted in transmitted light in life, many of or all the lvs opposite, the lower to ca 1 cm wide, not greatly elongate. (C. angustifolia; C. oniscicarpa) The var. gladiata, with the lvs not dark-dotted, all or nearly all alternate, the lower much elongate and mostly 1–3.5 cm wide, probably does not reach our range. (C. falcata; C. longifolia)