Pink Flowered Plants

9 years ago

These wispy plants were found in shallow water along the edge of a lake. They had yellow disk flowers, 6-8 pink ray flowers, and stems 12-15 inches tall. I couldn't get close enough for measurements; but the flowers seemed to be about 1 inch wide. Their stems were about the same width as the Dodder stems, and their leaves were linear, maybe 1-3 inches long, and just a bit wider than the Dodder stems. Some of the upper leaves were alternate, but I could not confirm lower leaf arrangement. The larger lanceolate leaves in the photos belong to Justicia americana plants mixed in. The day was very dark and dreary, so detail is poor. I don't have any idea if these were wild plants, or escapees.

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Comments (4)

dbarron
9 years ago
There are some moisture loving pink coreopsis, this *could* be something in that clan.
I'm anxious to see what others say.
lycopus
9 years ago
The only pink coreopsis is Coreopsis rosea. It is widely cultivated and naturalized outside its native range.
jekeesl (south-central Arkansas)
Original Author
9 years ago
Cool. Thanks for the steer dbarron. I worked through Weakley's Coreopsis key and found two pink-flowered candidates - C. rosea and C. nudata. Per the FNA descriptions, the later is a relatively tall, water loving plant that blooms in the spring. Coreopsis rosea is much shorter, and flowers Aug-Sep on marsh edges. If the genus is Coreopsis, then I'm fairly confident that the plant is C. rosea. However, the BONAP map shows that C. rosea is a native species that is rare, and only known in a few eastern states. So I am also curious to see what others say.
dbarron
9 years ago
Hmm, as far as the nativness of it...I wouldn't worry much about that. There's always been a fair amount of illicit transportation of water organisms in boat bilges and such. If fish get transplanted, so can water plants :0
Yeah, it looks more like rosea of the two to me...but again, I don't know.