Species
+

Coreopsis tinctoria Nutt.

Atkinson's Tickseed, Atkinson's coreopsis, Columbia Tickseed, Columbia coreopsis

Climate known 64 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Coreopsis tinctoria, commonly known as plains coreopsis, garden tickseed, golden tickseed, or calliopsis, is an annual forb in the Asteraceae family. The species is common in Canada, northeast Mexico, and most of the United States, especially the Great Plains and Southern States. It has been introduced and naturalized into many parts of Europe and Asia.

Text from Wikipedia, “Plains coreopsis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Coreopsis

Coreopsis is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. Common names include calliopsis and tickseed, a name shared with various other plants.

Text from Wikipedia, “Coreopsis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
Nutt.
Native to
Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba +52
Wild records
1216 in range· 347 open

At a glance

Warmest month
32°C
Jul, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1056mm/yr
12 wet months · peak May 114 mm (CHELSA)
Light
15–42DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to July and September to November in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1056 mm a year, wettest May at 114 mm, driest January at 66 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -7.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Bidens atkinsoniana (Douglas ex Lindl.) Banfi, Galasso & Bartolucci; Bidens tinctoria (Nutt.) Baill.; Bidens tinctoria (Nutt.) E.H.L.Krause; Bidens tinctoria (Nutt.) Sennikov; Calliopsis atkinsoniana (Douglas ex Lindl.) Hook. and 43 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to July and September to November in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (763 mm of 1056 mm) takes 8 months, March to July and September to November. Mean temperature moves 22.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to January and March to May.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1056 mm a year, wettest May at 114 mm, driest January at 66 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1056 mm a year at the habitat, 763 mm of it March to July and September to November. Wettest month May at 114 mm, driest January at 66 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 584 mm to 1422 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 42 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 10, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -7.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -7.0 °C, the absolute minimum -22.0 °C, about 60 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.4 °C in January (across the envelope cells -7.1 °C to 8.2 °C), warmest day 32.3 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -7.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 59% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 11 °C in Jan to 32 °C in Jul; mean night from 1 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1056 mm of rain a year, most in May. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 949 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -22.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-40°-20°20°40°frost38.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)-22.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 15–42RH 56–59 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 949 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C11 / 1–1813 / 4–1918 / 9–2323 / 14–2627 / 20–3031 / 25–3232 / 27–3432 / 26–3529 / 22–3123 / 16–2717 / 9–2212 / 3–18
Night °C1 / -7–83 / -6–107 / -2–1311 / 3–1617 / 9–2121 / 14–2423 / 17–2523 / 17–2519 / 13–2213 / 7–188 / 1–133 / -5–9
Rain mm66 / 24–12167 / 27–12684 / 39–12885 / 39–122114 / 65–144111 / 64–15193 / 53–12683 / 50–11791 / 57–129101 / 48–13784 / 33–12877 / 28–136
DLI18 / 12–1922 / 18–2429 / 26–3135 / 33–3838 / 37–4141 / 39–4442 / 38–4538 / 34–4132 / 28–3425 / 20–2818 / 12–2115 / 10–18
RH %58 / 56–6258 / 55–6157 / 54–6056 / 53–5958 / 54–6159 / 54–6258 / 52–6258 / 52–6157 / 53–6057 / 54–5958 / 56–6059 / 56–61

Each figure is the median across the 949 grid cells holding the 1146 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1098:1994 (35.075, -80.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -22.0 °C, 1st-percentile night -7.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 949 distinct grid cells holding the 1146 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1098:1994 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 35.00_-80.000, lapse-corrected +27 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 146 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf· introduced: Great Britain, Norway, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Baleares, France, Portugal, Spain, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, South European Russia, Ukraine, Mozambique, Irkutsk, Primorye, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Assam, East Himalaya, India, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Myanmar, Vietnam, Jawa, Fiji, Tubuai Is., Marianas, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“annual” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker29.814, -95.691 · in the densest population, 265 records (22% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1216 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 347 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 28 km away. 691 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 70 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1216 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Coreopsis tinctoriaCoreopsis tinctoriaCoreopsis tinctoriaCoreopsis tinctoriaCoreopsis tinctoriaCoreopsis tinctoriaCoreopsis tinctoriaCoreopsis tinctoria

Photographs: (c) Devin Kellar, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (6).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Coreopsis tinctoria, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Plant species or flower colour diversity? Identifying the drivers of public and invertebrate response to designed annual meadows
Helen Hoyle, Briony A. Norton, Nigel Dunnett, Jonathan P. Richards (2018) · Landscape and Urban Planning
The flavonoid-rich fraction of Coreopsis tinctoria promotes glucose tolerance regain through pancreatic function recovery in streptozotocin-induced glucose-intolerant rats
Teresa Dias, Maria Rosário Bronze, Peter J. Houghton, Hélder Mota‐Filipe (2010) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
New Phenolic Compounds from Coreopsis tinctoria Nutt. and Their Antioxidant and Angiotensin I-Converting Enzyme Inhibitory Activities
Wei Wang, Wei Chen, Yingshi Yang, Tianxing Liu (2014) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Traditional uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and toxicology of Coreopsis tinctoria Nutt.: A review
Jie Shen, Mengyin Hu, Wei Teck Tan, Jiwei Ding (2020) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Chemical and nutraceutical properties of Coreopsis tinctoria
Limin Guo, Wensheng Zhang, Shiming Li, Chi‐Tang Ho (2015) · Journal of Functional Foods
Antagonistic interactions between competition and insect herbivory on plant growth
Joshua J. Haag, Malcolm D. Coupe, James F. Cahill (2004) · Journal of Ecology
Cytoprotective effect of Coreopsis tinctoria extracts and flavonoids on tBHP and cytokine-induced cell injury in pancreatic MIN6 cells
Teresa Dias, Bo Liu, Peter M. Jones, Peter J. Houghton (2011) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Coreopsis 5 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 143 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.