Giant Coreopsis Really Is a Rare Local Specimen

• Coreopsis Genus ‘Relatives’ May Grow in Other States

BY SUZANNE GULDIMANN

For most of the year, it’s an unobtrusive brownish shrub, or sometimes even a small tree, but for a few short weeks during the rainy season, coreopsis gigantea, the giant coreopis, covers Malibu’s coastal bluffs with a tapestry of golden flowers on a background of feathery green foliage.
There are 35 known species of the plant genus coreopsis, all are native to the Americas, most have showy flowers, and many are widespread wildflowers or popular garden plants, but the giant coreopsis that thrives along the local coast is found on the coastal bluffs from Malibu to San Luis Obispo County and on the Channel Islands and nowhere else in the world.
A smaller cousin, the sea dahlia, or coreopsis maritima, occurs as far south as Baja, according to the bible of California plant identification, Willis Jepson’s “Manual of the Flowering Plants of California.”
Rarely found out of sight of the ocean, the aptly named giant coreopsis can reach a height of eight or even 10 feet.
Malibu’s first residents, the Chumash, reportedly used the plant to produce a vivid orange dye. It may also have had medicinal properties or cultural significance now forgotten. It grows most thickly in the places where the Chumash once lived, including the ancient Chumash shrine site at Point Dume and the cliffs above what was once the Chumash settlement of Muwu, now Mugu.
Uncontrolled development during the 20th century threatened this coastal plant with extinction. It is now protected, and continues to thrive on the Channel Islands and on the remaining undisturbed mainland coastal bluffs.
For many contemporary Malibuites, the golden flowers of the coreopsis are an eagerly anticipated harbinger of spring.
Native plant horticulturalist Antonio Sanchez sells giant coreopsis as a garden plant at his native plant nursery called Nopalito, at 4107 E. Main Street in Ventura.
Sanchez says that the giant coreopsis can be grown as a garden plant, with a little coaxing. He recommends treating this unusual California native like a succulent.
“You can grow them in a pot, like a succulent, that lets you control the soil and the water. They’ll also grow on a hillside with good drainage, but they don’t like to be watered during the summer,” he told the Malibu Surfside News.
One of the best and easiest places to see the flowers are at the Point Dume Headlands—where visitors may be additionally rewarded with a view of whales, sea lions or dolphins, or the sound of meadowlarks singing.
They are also currently visible all along the undeveloped portions of Pacific Coast Highway in west Malibu, from Point Dume to Point Mugu. Flower enthusiasts are advised to hurry—this magnificent sea of gold is a fleeting and transient pleasure that should be enjoyed by many.