Definition of "calliopsis" []

• A North American annual plant (Coreopsis tinctoria) widely cultivated for its showy flower heads with yellow rays and purple-red to brownish centers. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "California poppies for oranges and yellows; sweet sultans for purples, whites, and pale yellows; petunias for purples, violets, and whites; larkspurs for blues and violets; bachelor's buttons (or cornflowers) for blues; calliopsis and coreopsis and calendulas for yellows; gaillardias for red-yellows and orange-reds; China asters for many colors."
• ""Mother always says that gay flowers are the city person's greatest help in brightening up a dark room," said Della as she laid aside all the calliopsis from the flowers she was sorting."
• "And we had banks of calliopsis and sunflowers -- the small sunflowers of Kansas, that bloom a hundred or more to a stalk -- and tall phlox whose fragrance carries one back to some far, forgotten childhood."